


Mindgame Masquerade

by Dreamshaper



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: And a bit of fluff, F/F, and hopefully a surprise or two along the way, and some descriptions of ouchies, but nothing too graphic I think, but there will be Holtzbert of course, for once I wrote something set in the regular GB verse lol, starts with those two dorks not dating, this will have a bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-05-29 11:54:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 27,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15072611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamshaper/pseuds/Dreamshaper
Summary: When they were called to the latest bust, the Ghostbusters thought they'd just deal with yet another apparition. They were wrong, and handling what comes for them might be harder than expected.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go with another Holtzbert fic - I can't just stop writing those two dorks ;) I hope you'll have as much fun reading this as I had writing it :D

Erin rubbed her eyes and sighed, then peered into her coffee mug, dismayed to find it empty; she tried to remember if she’d had two or three coffees so far and realized that she had no idea, grimacing to herself as she knew that her caffeine intake was way too high.

She also knew though that yawning and rubbing her eyes all day wouldn’t be an option, especially not if they’d be called to another bust; and so, she ignored her concerns about how much caffeine she had each day and made her way to the firehouse’s kitchen, not surprised to find Holtzmann there – because the upstairs lab had been quiet, and if it was quiet, Holtzmann usually was either at the kitchen or at Kevin’s desk.

“Hey”, she said, the engineer looking up from where she was standing at the coffee machine and giving her a happy smile, “getting some coffee, huh?”

The moment the words left her mouth, Erin could have smacked herself, asking herself why all her alleged brilliance left her whenever she was talking to Holtzmann and she ended up doing things like this, stating the obvious like some sort of dimwit or putting her foot in her mouth in some other, embarrassing way.

“Yah”, Holtzmann said, not letting it show if she thought that this had been a dumb thing to say, “if the caffeine in my system drops below a certain level, the danger of poofs happening increases dramatically, and we don’t want that.”

“No, we don’t”, Erin agreed at once, shaking her head for emphasis, “the mayor already complained about how much we spend on fire extinguishers, so…”

“Ha”, Holtzmann let out, finishing pouring coffee into her comically large mug and making room for Erin so she could get some, too, “and to think I was holding back. If I had gone all out, he would’ve had an aneurysm by now.”

“Please don’t give the mayor aneurysms”, Erin gave back as she filled her own, reasonably sized mug, making a face at how much sugar Holtzmann added to her coffee, only needing a small splash of milk in her own, “he does pay our bills. And our salaries.”

“I know, I know”, Holtzmann said, waving her hand, “no more poofs than necessary, big solemn Holtzmann promise. Some can’t be avoided though, soooo…”

Erin rolled her eyes, smiled though to show that she didn’t quite mean it; Holtzmann brightly grinned back at her at once, making her heart skip a beat, then skipped back to the stairs leading up to her lab, somehow managing to not splash any of her coffee out of the giant mug on the way.

Looking after her, Erin barely noticed how she smiled to herself; her smiles came much easier these days, real and genuine smiles, not the fake polite ones she had given her colleagues at Columbia, and she had realized lately how much more relaxed she was during her days, how she slowly, but steadily stopped overthinking everything and let her various anxieties and worries rule her life and every interaction she had with others.

She simply was happier, she knew, happier than she had been in a long time… and then, she noticed the way Abby was staring at her from her desk across the room, and blushed immediately, knowing exactly why Abby was giving her that sort of look.

Erin pointedly looked away, cheeks still feeling hot as she walked back to her desk, focusing much more than necessary on her cup of coffee; Abby had told her before that Holtzmann wasn’t just flirting with her for fun, and Patty had backed her up about this, but still Erin found it difficult to face what she was feeling for the engineer, and to act on it, despite how much happier and easy-going her new life was making her still deeply afraid of rejection.

And not only was she worried that Holtzmann might reject her after all, but she found herself concerned what it could do the team if Holtzmann and she did start dating and then, for whatever reason, broke up; she couldn’t imagine working so closely with someone whom she had dated and then had been dumped by – not once did it occur to her that she might end up dumping Holtzmann – and she didn’t want to imagine how dull and boring her life might get again, should she be forced to leave the Ghostbusters.

The ringing of the phone distracted her from these ponderings, and she perked up, almost in perfect synchronicity with Abby and Patty; they all stopped their work to listen as Kevin took the call, their clueless secretary having gotten a bit better at his job, but still messing up from time to time, and so, they always made sure to eavesdrop whenever a call came in.

“Ghostbusters, what do you want”, he said, a greeting they hadn’t managed to stop him from using yet; Erin made a mental note to send him to a communication training sometime soon, then focused on how the talk continued, pleased to see that he was taking notes as he spoke to the caller, in a soothing tone which hopefully might help, should the person be upset.

“The Ghostbusters will be with you shortly”, he said, then hung up the phone and called out “ghost on the loose!”; a few seconds later, Holtzmann came sliding down the fireman’s pole and landed with an audible _thump_ , grinning happily at the chance of busting another ghost, her obvious joy making Erin smile as well almost automatically.

“Time to suit up, girls!” the engineer said, clapping her hands, “Erin, don’t forget your shotgun, I reduced the kickback like you asked. Patty, your Ghost Chipper has an increased range now, and Abby, your Ghost Puncher was already perfect, so I had to do nothing with it.”

“Hell yeah it was”, Abby nodded, earning a bright smile from the engineer; as Erin strapped the shotgun to her leg, she thanked Holtzmann for the modifications – being a Ghostbuster had done quite good things for her strength and stamina, but the kickback of the shotgun had been quite harsh, and more than once had given her bruises on her shoulder or arm, and she was glad that Holtzmann had been able to reduce it without taking actual power from it.

“Thanks Holtzy”, Patty showed her gratitude too, admiring the new Ghost Chipper, “I don’t mind going up close and personal with these nasties as much as I did when we started, but I still prefer taking them down from a bit farther away. If only so I don’t get slimed all the time like Erin.”

Erin huffed at that, while Abby grinned and Holtzmann snickered; then, the engineer brightened even further as she told Erin that she had mixed up another batch of the Slime-Be-Gone mixture she had come up with, a mix of several cleaning supplies which took care of the slime with surprising efficiency.

Erin never had dared to ask what exactly went into it to make so efficient, but since so far, it hadn’t melted off her skin – in fact, didn’t even redden it – she figured it was harmless, and just thanked the engineer again, quite certain that she would once again end up getting slimed during the bust.

After all, she got slimed nine times out of ten, so she had no reason to think this would go any different.


	2. Chapter 2

The house they had been called to was, for once, not some old abandoned building, but a quite newly built, pretty looking one family home, in a nice neighbourhood; the man who had called, the father of the family, Erin presumed, was already waiting in the driveway, wringing his hands when the Ecto-1 came to a screeching halt at the curb.

“Next time I’m driving”, Abby grumbled as she got out of the backseat with Patty, Erin as always having been riding shotgun, “you drive like a maniac, Holtz.”

“That’s cause I’m a mad scientist”, Holtzmann said with a cackle, the middle-aged man listening to this exchange with an uneasy look on his face; nudging the engineer, Erin reminded her that they had to act professional, not that she personally minded the younger woman’s crazier side, but the mayor had been quite vocal about how he wanted them to act the part if they were getting paid by his office.

“Ahem”, Holtzmann let out, the nudge being enough to remind her; the man still looked confused, apparently enough to ask if they were the Ghostbusters, Erin giving him a hopefully calming smile as she nodded.

“You called us, right?” she asked him an easy to answer question, eager to help him calm down, “you spoke to our secretary. How can we help you?"

“Yes, I called, I’m Benedict Roth, we just moved here, a while ago”, the man replied, “not even three months ago? And it’s a fairly new house, no one died tragically in here, we researched it. I don’t get it why we’re haunted.”

“A haunting can have numerous reasons and does not need to be tied to a death at the location”, Abby told him, all the professional; Holtzmann had other ideas though, giving the man a curious look and making him look at her, his eyebrows going up at what she said next.

“Or someone has been doing some creepy stuff at your home and accidentally called the ghost”, the engineer helpfully said, “did anyone do some creepy stuff?”

“No”, he replied stiffly, with a look of dismay at the younger woman, “we are upstanding Christians, Miss… Holtzmann, we do not do any _creepy stuff_ , as you put it.”

“Doctor Holtzmann”, Holtzmann corrected him, while Erin held back a grimace at the way the man had emphasized his religion, “and alrighty, then. Guess we’ll find out the reason for the haunting during our work. Ladies?”

“Ready”, Abby gave back, having the PKE meter out already; she led the way, the other three trailing behind her, Roth apparently having chosen Erin as his prime contact for this venture, since he stayed close to her, but didn’t bother to keep his voice low as he talked to her.

“I don’t understand why this is happening to us”, he let Erin know, shaking his head and crossing himself as they entered the house, the PKE meter still dark and silent, but they all knew this could change in an instant, “we are good, God-fearing people. Are you a Christian, Dr Gilbert?”

“I’m a scientist”, Erin replied diplomatically, not wanting to start a discussion about her beliefs – or the lack of them – with this man, knowing it wouldn’t lead anywhere, and feeling somewhat relieved when the guy accepted her answer and just fell back a bit, so he could watch all four women work.

Abby was still leading the group, keeping her eyes on the PKE meter as they walked down the hallway and to the first room; helpfully, their client supplied “kitchen” from behind them, and Abby nodded as she stepped inside, glancing around, almost expecting a ghost to come rushing at them even though the PKE meter still wasn’t displaying any activity.

“Are the hauntings focused on a certain area?” she wanted to know when nothing happened, turning to look at the man, “or all over the house?”

“All over the house”, he replied, with an unhappy look at the ceiling, “we couldn’t determine a focus so far. We tried holy water and a prayer circle, but nothing helped, it just got worse.”

“No worries”, Holtzmann said, with a bright grin at him which warmed Erin’s heart, but only made him frown, showing that he clearly hadn’t taken a quick liking to the engineer, the way most of their clients did, “we’ll catch that bad boy, and then Papa Ben and his family can be happy campers here at home again.”

“No one calls me Ben”, he replied frostily, any bit of liking he might have felt evaporated, Erin could tell, “I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t either, Doctor Holtzmann. I’ll get my wife, she can tell you more about these… events.”

“Jeez, touchy”, Holtzmann whispered to Erin as he wandered off to get his wife, the physicist smiling a bit and shrugging, then nodding; it didn’t take long until Roth returned and introduced his wife Sheila, the woman looking like a clichéd good catholic lady, with her ankle-length skirt and the tight bun she had done up her hair in.

“Hello”, she greeted them politely, the four women echoing the greeting, “and thank you for coming. My husband and I are very glad you found time for us.”

Holtzmann held back a frown as that had sounded quite rehearsed, but didn’t comment; from the corner of her eye, she saw how Patty raised an eyebrow and figured she wasn’t the only one who had noticed anything odd about this, but if Sheila had picked up on their reactions, she didn’t let it show, just giving them a somewhat mechanic smile.

“All three of us experienced the ghost”, she said, “Matthew, our son, and myself more than Benedict. He provides for us and works a lot, so Matthew and I are home on our own quite often.”

“Tell us what you’ve experienced”, Erin said, making the woman nod before she started recounting the haunting; and just like when she had greeted the Ghostbusters, her words sounded oddly rehearsed, and the phenomena she described were such classics, they could have come from a textbook.

As the woman talked, without showing much emotion about what she was saying, Erin got the feeling that something was a bit off, and exchanged a look with Holtzmann; the engineer gave a barely perceptible shrug, then a nod, signalling she had noticed, too, but they all knew better than to bring it up right away.

While Sheila spoke, a door down the hallway opened, and a boy Holtzmann guessed to be somewhere between twelve and fourteen poked his head out of the room; she figured that this had to be the Roth’s son, Matthew, but before she could call out to him and ask him to join them, give them his version of events, the elder Roth spotted him and sharply told him to go back to his room.

“Sorry about that”, he said, leaving the women unsure if he was apologizing to them or to his wife for interrupting her, “but you know how children are, too nosy and often… blessed with overactive imaginations.”

“We’d still like to speak to him”, Erin said, and since now, Holtzmann was watching closely for a reaction, she saw the man’s eyebrow twitch, just for a moment, but enough to let her notice, “children often experience hauntings differently.”

“Matthew experienced the same things I did”, Sheila replied, and now, Erin didn’t hold back her reaction anymore, frowning, “if you don’t mind, we’d like to keep his contact with you to a minimum. He’s at an impressionable age.”

Holtzmann almost asked him if he thought he could catch the rather obvious gay from her, but held the comment back, knowing it would only cause strife; Erin’s frown deepened, but she didn’t try to argue back, able to tell at once that it would lead nowhere.

“Alright”, she thus said, “we still need to check his room though, to be thorough.”

Both Sheila and Benedict looked unhappy at this, but nodded; and so, the Ghostbusters continued their search, but no matter which room they entered, from the attic to the basement, the PKE meter remained dark and silent, making them wonder if there was more going on at this house than a simple haunting.


	3. Chapter 3

“Well, that was a bust”, Holtzmann sighed as she got back behind the steering wheel of Ecto-1, “and not in the good way.”

“It’s too bad they wouldn’t let us put up cameras”, Patty commented, making the other three nod, “and am I the only one who thought something about them was… weird?”

“Not just weird, downright creepy”, Erin gave back, earning sighs of relief as she had been the one to say what they all had been thinking, “especially the wife, did you notice how rehearsed she sound? And her smile, like a Stepford wife.”

“God, so true, I’m so happy you said it”, Abby commented, shaking her head, “I thought I was reading too much into it, but if you guys noticed, too…”

“And something was off about the kid”, Holtzmann said, sounding uncharacteristically thoughtful, “did you notice how you looked at us? He wanted to talk to us, but his parents wouldn’t let him…”

“Guys”, Erin said, reaching out and placing her hand on Holtzmann’s to stop her from turning the key in the ignition, her gaze fixed on the house though, “look. The window on the upper floor.”

They all looked, as unobtrusive as it was possible; and they all saw at once what Erin had meant, their impression that something weird was going on only strengthened by what they saw.

Standing at the window was Matthew, looking out at them, and Erin was pretty sure he was staring right at them, not just at their car; and as if to confirm this impression, he reached up with one hand and started to move his index finger over the glass, in slow, deliberate strokes.

“He’s writing something”, Abby was the first to notice, frowning as she tried to spell it out, “looks like… G… O… O… D… L… U… C… K… Good luck? Well, that’s nice.”

“That’s just as creepy as all the rest”, Holtzmann gave back, frowning again; Erin had to agree, and she wasn’t quite sure how to react, finally deciding to just raise her hand and nod, as a quiet signal that she had seen and understood.

Matthew shook his head in response, then pulled the curtain shut, and Erin wondered what he truly had been trying to tell them while Holtzmann finally started the engine and drove away from the house, the physicist suddenly quite sure that they had missed something important and that this mistake would some come back to haunt them, perhaps quite literally.

* * *

Once they had made it back to the firehouse, Erin tried to get the paperwork on the bust done, and even though this wasn’t a difficult or long task, what with how there hadn’t actually been a proper bust, she found herself unable to focus, her thoughts moving back to the odd family again and again, thinking about every little expression and every word they had said to them during their time at the house.

Giving up on the paperwork, telling herself it could wait for a bit, Erin saved the few changes she had made to the file; the screen flickered as she closed the document, and she frowned, then called out “Holtzmann!”, the engineer responding by poking her head through the hole in the ceiling through which the fireman’s pole led and giving her a questioning look.

“Is the containment unit running hot again?” Erin wanted to know, gesturing at her laptop, “my laptop flickered at me, don’t have it die on me again like last week, please.”

“I didn’t notice anything, but I’ll check”, Holtzmann gave back, Erin smiling at her and nodding; the engineer grinned back at her before she retreated, and Erin felt familiar tingles at that grin, by now not even surprised anymore, all too aware of the things Holtzmann’s grins and winks and jokes did to her.

Since finishing the report wouldn’t happen with her current distracted state, she got up from her seat and went to Patty’s desk, the historian busy with researching the house they had been called to; after all, they all knew that the family not knowing about anyone having died at their home didn’t actually mean that truly no one had died there, and if anyone could find the information in the depths of the internet, it was Patty.

“Any luck?” she asked as she sat down on the edge of the desk; Patty sighed and shook her head, looking up from her laptop’s screen and at Erin, sounding dismayed when she replied verbally, as well.

“Nothing”, she let the physicist know, “the people who lived in this house before just moved out, no reports of killings or anything.”

“Huh”, Erin let out, not quite sure what to think of this, “and nothing else of interest, either?”

“Just this one report”, Patty gave back, gesturing at her screen, “about the neighbours calling the police because they thought they’d heard the kid screaming. When the cops arrived though, they were a perfectly happy family again, the kid said nothing and had no obvious injuries, so they just dropped it again.”

This made Erin think back to how oddly the kid had behaved, and she frowned to herself; usually, whenever the Ghostbusters arrived at a location where kids were present, they were keen to talk to them, to speak about the hauntings and to look at their equipment, even if the parents tried to stop them, but Matthew had retreated at once when his parents had told him to, behaviour Erin found quite unfitting for a child, now that she had time to think about it.

“There must have been more to the story than what the police has in the report”, she said out loud, glad that the mayor had made sure the Ghostbusters could actually access those reports – with certain limits, but enough to help them with their work, “the kid acted so… odd today. Not like a child at all, not like the kids usually act when they see us. He was scared.”

“I agree”, Patty said, with another small sigh, “but not much we can do about that, if we try, we might just get told it’s none of our business, not our jurisdiction.”

“Can you show me that report?” Erin asked, already moving so she could look at the screen; Patty nodded and took hold of the mouse, but just before she could click on the file, the laptop’s screen suddenly went black, both Patty and Erin just staring for a few seconds.

“What the Hell”, Patty was the one to break the stunned silence while Erin blinked, “it just crashed?! It never has done that before!”

She clicked the mouse, as if that would help, then shook her head as she pushed the power button; the laptop refused to react, and Patty grumbled under her breath, then gave Erin an apologetic look.

“I guess this will take a while”, she said, “I’ll get you when I got it working again?”

Erin nodded and hopped off the desk, feeling a bit lost for a moment, not quite sure what to do; she knew that working on the report wouldn’t do any good, her mind still too occupied with other thoughts for that, and so, she decided to see how Holtzmann was doing up in the lab instead, telling Patty where she’d go before she walked away from the historian’s desk, Patty barely hearing her though as she grumbled and cursed at her laptop, unable to figure out why it suddenly just had stopped working like that.


	4. Chapter 4

Holtzmann was working on the containment unit when Erin came up to the lab, lying halfway beneath it, only her legs poking out; Erin smiled at the way her feet were wiggling this way and that, to the music playing from her stereo, watching her fondly for a bit, amazed by the apparently endless energy she had, kinda-sorta dancing even when she was flat on her back.

“Hey”, she finally said, after just having stood there for a few minutes; in response, Holtzmann’s legs jerked, and apparently, so did the rest of her, because Erin could hear an audible _bonk_ sound when her head hit the containment unit above her, her hand coming up to her cover her mouth when Holtzmann yelped in pain.

“Oh my God”, she let out a yelp of her own, hurrying to the engineer’s side, “Holtz I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you, are you okay?”

“Yeah”, Holtzmann’s voice came from beneath the containment unit, followed by the blonde sliding out from beneath it, Erin feeling guilty again when she saw the reddened spot on her forehead, “that’s not the first time I hit my noggin on something. What can I do for you, cupcake?”

“Nothing in particular”, Erin admitted in response, blushing at how Holtzmann raised an eyebrow, “I’m just… I can’t focus on doing the report for today’s bust. Or the lack of it. So I went to see how Patty’s research is going, but her laptop crashed, so now I’m up here to visit you.”

“How nice”, Holtzmann said with a bright smile, making Erin smile back almost automatically, “I’m always happy to get a visit from you. Containment unit seems fine, by the way, nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Huh”, Erin let out, not doubting Holtzmann’s words, but finding it odd how both Patty’s laptop and her own had acted weird earlier, Patty’s much more drastically than hers, “maybe we should have the power lines checked then, my laptop acted weird too, even though it didn’t crash like Patty’s.”

“I’ll take a look at them”, Holtzmann told her, making her smile again, “I’m no expert, but I should be able to find out if there’s power spikes or something which could cause that. Speaking of weird though, I can’t stop thinking about that family today. Especially about the kid.”

“Same”, Erin sighed, leaning against the containment unit before she realized what she was doing and might potentially get herself radioactive, quickly straightening up again, “he just was… too quiet. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah”, Holtzmann nodded at once, to her relief, her confirmation along with the one she already had gotten from Patty proving that she hadn’t imagined things, “and I got the feeling he would have talked to us if his parents had let him. Makes me wonder if they’re hiding something.”

“You know, I thought I was overthinking things when I had that same thought”, Erin said, frowning to herself, “but if you think the same… I talked to Patty about this, too, and she also thought it was weird. But there’s not much we can do.”

“Not unless the kid comes forward and says something”, Holtzmann said, sounding thoughtful now, “maybe we should go back there when charming Benedict is at work and see if we can talk to him in—”

The lightbulb just above the containment unit exploded, splinters of glass raining down, the surprisingly loud prompting Holtzmann to interrupt herself with a startled yelp; Erin flinched back, hands coming up reflexively to shield her head, her eyes wide when she looked at the engineer again.

“What the Hell”, Holtzmann said, looking as startled as Erin was feeling, “that wasn’t even on!”

“All the ghosts are in the unit, right”, Erin wanted to know, eying the containment unit sceptically, not surprised though when Holtzmann nodded at once – after all, she had built it, and Erin knew that no ghost would be able to get out of there unless Holtzmann allowed it.

“Yeah”, Holtzmann confirmed her thoughts, “nothing got out. But maybe we should get the PKE meter and do a general check anyway, just to be on the safe side.”

Erin nodded her agreement to that and let Holtzmann know she would get the PKE meter; she hurried off to do so, and while she was gone, Holtzmann started cleaning up the splinters of glass, frowning to herself as she did so.

She was no stranger to poofs, from small to dangerously large, having caused many of them herself during the course of her career; she never had seen it happen though that a lightbulb which wasn’t even in use just exploded out of nowhere, and while what had happened to the laptops of Erin and Patty could have been explained by faulty wiring, she doubted the same could be said for a lightbulb which wasn’t even turned on.

Looking up at the sad remains of the bulb, Holtzmann frowned to herself again, trying to come up with a rational explanation for what had happened; and just then, Erin came back with the PKE meter in hand, moving to her side as she switched it on.

She figured that it would at least react to the ghosts in the containment unit, and was surprised when it stayed dark and quiet; a quick glance reassured her that it was indeed on, and she raised an eyebrow, then gave Holtzmann an appreciative look, the engineer looking back in surprise, clearly not sure what this was about.

“That containment unit must shield them really well”, Erin said, gesturing at the PKE meter, “well enough so the meter doesn’t pick anything up from them even right next to it. Impressive.”

“Yeah well, I figured, if one ever does get out somehow it wouldn’t make sense to have the PKE meter go haywire near the containment unit”, Holtzmann shrugged, looking from the quiet meter up at the light bulb’s empty fixture, “so I made sure to shield it the best I could. From that, and from the radiation, Dr Gorin helped.”

“Well, you did a good job”, Erin praised her, making her smile, “but we still have no idea what happened to the light bulb, cause according to the PKE meter, there’s no ghost here, not even residue.”

She looked at the dark and silent PKE meter again, as if for emphasis, and this time, they both frowned – because even if a ghost had escaped the unit, had broken the bulb and then had fled, there should have been some energy left for the meter to pick up.

“Weird”, she added, not quite sure what else to say… and just then, the PKE meter trembled weirdly in her hand, something she never had noticed it do before, and from how Holtzmann was staring at it, Erin was quite sure it shouldn’t actually be doing that.

“Holtz?” she still had time to say – before the meter heated up in her hand, so quickly that she barely realized what was happening, the pain coming just a few seconds after she had noticed something was off, a pained yelp coming from her as the meter got too hot to hold and she had to let go of it, angry red welts already rising where the grip had been touching her skin.

“Oh my God!” she heard Holtzmann cry out, smoke rising from the meter while Erin clutched her wrist, not quite daring to touch the skin where she actually had been hurt, “Erin! You got burned!”

Feeling oddly numb, all Erin could do was nod; apparently, whatever had happened to the PKE meter was over again, since it stopped smoking and just laid there, looking like the harmless piece of equipment it usually was, but Holtzmann paid it no mind either way, having taken hold of Erin’s arm and half pulling, half leading her to the sink she was now glad she’d had installed at her lab.

“Here”, she said, quickly turning on the cold water, “hold your hand beneath this, just let the water run over it, cool it. I’ll get the first aid kit.”

Erin nodded again, gritting her teeth as now, the pain was setting in fully; she kept her hand beneath the running water while Holtzmann hurried away, then returned a short while later, holding the first aid kit she had stocked herself, aware that she was somewhat accident-prone during her daily work in the lab.

“Okay”, she said as she came back, putting the first aid kit onto the little cupboard next to the sink, “let me take a look at that, sadly, I have experience with burns.”

She took hold of Erin’s hand, and despite the pain and the shock about what had happened, Erin took note of how gentle the engineer was; the skin was already blistering where she had been burned, a streak across her palm and fingers, and Holtzmann grimaced at the sight, then gave Erin a sympathetic look.

“That’s gonna hurt for a few days, poor you”, she said, Erin making a face, “I’ve got ointment for burns here though, that should help a bit. Here, just let me…”

She unscrewed the little tube, Erin gritting her teeth again when the cold salve hit her skin; Holtzmann gave her an apologetic look, warning her again that this might hurt before she gently spread the ointment, making sure to cover every last bit of the injury, Erin bravely watching her work, trying hard to will away the pain.

“Okay”, Holtzmann said again once she deemed the injury properly treated, “now we gotta put some gauze on that, so no dirt gets in there, you don’t want dirt on or in a burn. I’ll be careful, okay?”

Erin just nodded again, and held still as Holtzmann wrapped her hand up with the soft gauze; the tenderness with which the engineer treated her injury made it easier to bear the pain, and she found herself smiling when Holtzmann got done.

“Thank you”, she said, holding back the urge to flex her fingers, figuring it wouldn’t be smart, “I didn’t even know the PKE meter can do that. Get that hot, I mean.”

“That’s the thing”, Holtzmann gave back, both women looking at the PKE meter which still laid where Erin had dropped it, even though the physicist looked back at Holtzmann at what the engineer said next, startled and a bit alarmed, “it doesn’t. I never built it with anything which could get so hot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out the awesome art aloc made for this chapter here! :D http://googoogojob.tumblr.com/post/173552829978/im-not-allowed-to-worship-buuut-u-know-what


	5. Chapter 5

“So the PKE meter didn’t show any ghostly activity, but got hot enough to burn you?” Abby recapped after Erin and Holtzmann had told Patty and her what had happened, “I didn’t even know it could do that!”

“It can’t”, Holtzmann repeated her previous statement with a small sigh, “there’s no parts which could get hot enough, it’s physically impossible. But there was no sign for a ghost, either.”

“No sign the PKE meter could pick up, at least”, Patty pointed out, while Abby was taking a look at Erin’s bandaged hand, even though she had seen Holtzmann treat burns on herself before and knew that the engineer knew what she was doing, “we don’t know everything there is about ghosts yet, so…”

“The idea of ghosts out there which are not picked up by our equipment is unsettling”, Erin said, grimacing at both the thought and the pain in her hand; the ointment had helped, a bit, but her palm and fingers were throbbing, and the smallest movements only made that worse.

“Very much so”, Abby agreed, while Holtzmann got up and left without a word, prompting Erin to look after her in confusion for a moment before she focused on Abby again, “and you didn’t see anything, right? The lightbulb just blew up all on its own?”

“Pretty much”, Erin nodded, now hearing Holtzmann rummage around in the kitchen and figuring that she was thirsty, “we were talking about that family from earlier today and suddenly, bang, glass everywhere. And then the PKE meter heated up.”

“Here”, Holtzmann said as she came back, confusing Erin again as she was carrying a bag of frozen peas, “put your hand on this, it’s gonna help.”

“Holtz”, Erin gave back while Abby nodded solemnly, this not being the first instance she saw Holtzmann use some sort of frozen food to numb a burn, “those are frozen peas.”

“Trust me”, was all the engineer said as she put the bag down in front of Erin; the physicist gave her a sceptical look, then put her hand on it, and already a few seconds later, she started to look relieved as the cold almost immediately made it better.

“Oh wow”, she sighed, with a grateful look at the younger woman, “that does help, thank you so much, Holtz.”

“Glad to be of service”, Holtzmann smiled, Abby and Patty exchanging a look at the smile Erin gave the engineer in response, “if there is one thing I know, it’s how to treat burns.”

“You know many more things”, Erin reassured her, and for a few seconds, the two just looked and smiled at each other; then, Erin realized that they weren’t alone and cleared her throat, bringing the talk back to the previous topic, not a very elegant change of topic, but effective.

“So anyway”, she said, “we maybe have an invisible ghost in the firehouse, capable of breaking things and heating up the PKE meter, to the point where it burns the person holding it. I really don’t like that thought.”

“Neither do I”, Abby grumbled, looking around as if she expected things to randomly start blowing up all around them, “Holtz? Can you… make adjustments to the PKE meter?”

“I could if I knew what to adjust it to”, Holtzmann gave back, making a face, “but if this ghost, for whatever reason, gives off another sort of energy than the ones we’ve encountered so far, there’s too many possibilities. We’d have to narrow it down.”

“And we have no idea what to narrow it down to”, Erin sighed, prompting Patty to come to her feet as she let them know she’d hit the books; ever since their move to the firehouse, she had amassed quite the impressive collection of books about the paranormal, and she figured that there had to be something in one of them.

“I’ll help”, Erin offered, briefly lifting her hand off the frozen peas for emphasis, “trying to type with this will only make it hurt, so…”

Patty nodded, and together, they made their way to what Holtzmann called “Patty’s Library Corner of Quietness”, a name she had come up with after she had tried dancing there one time and Patty had been quite firm about how she did not allow any such noisy activities anywhere near her books.

“I’ll go back to the lab”, Holtzmann said, getting up from her seat, too, “Erin, don’t forget to replace your peas there regularly before they get warm, there’s a second bag in the freezer. Just switch them every now and then.”

“Okay, thanks, Holtz”, Erin smiled, the engineer beaming back at her and sending tingles up and down her spine; Holtzmann saluted and winked at her, then practically skipped over to the stairs, Erin watching her go before she followed Patty to her quiet corner, the historian already having moved a pile of books from the shelves to the table strategically placed between the two comfortable armchairs.

Grabbing the top one from the pile, Erin sat down, placing her bag of peas in her lap so she could rest her palm on it and holding the book with the other hand; instead of reading though, she found herself thinking of Holtzmann, of how the engineer had taken care of her when she’d gotten hurt, how gentle she had been with her.

She knew that Holtz would have done the same for Abby and Patty, had it been them in her place; still thinking back to how tender and caring Holtzmann had been made her feel all warm and tingly inside, quite similar to what she had felt when they had captured their first ghost.

_You know she’ll never want you, right._

Erin froze as this thought came pretty much out of nowhere, surprising, but not unexpected – her anxieties and her tendencies to overthink everything had gotten better ever since the Ghostbusters had been formed, but she knew that they were still there, were part of her, probably would be for the rest of her life.  

While the little voice of her anxiety piping up like this wasn’t truly surprising, it still hurt, and she glanced towards the stairs leading up to the lab, wondering if that voice was right or not; Holtzmann had been tirelessly flirting with her ever since they had met, and at first Erin had thought that this was just something she did, but as the weeks had gone by and had turned into months, she had realized that, while Holtzmann was charming and nice to people, she only ever flirted that way with her.

_That doesn’t mean she actually wants to be with you,_ that nasty little voice piped up again, and she frowned to herself, _just look at her, and then at yourself. You’re boring. Mousy. What would someone like Holtz want with someone like you?_

Forcing those thoughts to the far back of her mind, Erin told herself she had work to do, and made herself focus on the book she had chosen; and as she worked through the pages,    she managed to ignore the little voice until it faded, as it usually did when she found something to distract herself.

To her dismay though, the book seemed to have nothing which helped them with this newest predicament, and she put it aside and grabbed another one; in the other seat, Patty was busy with her own choice, unaware of the thoughts running through Erin’s mind, and Abby had gone to get some research done on her laptop, the firehouse quiet as all four women worked.

Then, after a while, the silence was broken by Holtzmann landing on the floor with an audible _thump_ as she came sliding down the fireman’s pole; she winked at Erin when the physicist looked up from her book in surprise, then strode past her into the kitchen, Erin finding herself smiling when Holtzmann came back a short while later with yet another bag of frozen peas.

“Figured you’d get lost in your work and forget”, she commented, taking the by now somewhat warm bag Erin had been using and replacing it with the other one, “there we go. I’ll put this back into the freezer.”

“Thank you”, Erin smiled, earning another wink from the engineer; and then, while Holtzmann went to put the other bag back into the freezer, she looked down at the wonderfully cold bag and smiled to herself.

Perhaps, she pondered, Holtzmann did like her that way after all.


	6. Chapter 6

With the possibility of an invisible, undetectable ghost on the loose in the firehouse, none of the four wanted to head home; Kevin even offered to stay, as well, even though he most likely had no idea what was going on, but Erin told him it was okay and to go home, figuring that it wouldn’t be smart to keep a man with his strength around, just in case the ghost would get the idea to possess one of them.

He smiled his usual somewhat dopey smile at her and nodded, then let her know he’d see her in the next morning then; and once he had left, the four women ordered their dinner and then assembled in the lounge they had created at the firehouse’s ground floor for themselves, for evenings such as this one, when they all stayed and wanted to spend some time together before retreating to their bedrooms.

“Should we watch a movie?” Erin suggested as she moved to sit next to Holtzmann on the couch, her usual spot; Patty had another comfortable armchair, having quite the thing for those, and Abby had a chair which reclined so she could lie back, “I heard there’s a new really good one on Netflix, a comedy.”

“Yeah, why not”, Abby smiled, grabbing the remote and opening their shared Netflix account; she quickly found the movie Erin had been talking about and started it, the four women watching in silence until their food arrived and they had to pause.

After the food had been eaten, they all got comfortable, and for Holtzmann, this meant ending up with her head in Erin’s lap; the physicist blushed, as she always did when Holtzmann moved to lie like this, but didn’t tell her to back off, just smiling down on her for a moment before she looked at the screen again.

_What are you doing_ , a small voice piped up from the far back of her mind after a while, surprising her quite a bit, since she normally wasn’t one to have such thoughts, at least not when she was in company, _you think she enjoys that? Being your pillow?_

As if on cue, Erin shifted beneath her, and Holtzmann froze, suddenly acutely aware of how the physicist’s thighs felt beneath her head; this wasn’t the first time she used Erin as a pillow like this, but Erin never had said anything about it, only ever had smiled and blushed a bit when Holtzmann had done it.

_Of course she doesn’t say anything_ , the voice found it necessary to point out, _she’s too polite to say anything. That she blushes and smiles doesn’t mean she enjoys it, she’s just too nice to say anything, and probably laughing at your stupid behaviour._

Abruptly, Holtzmann sat up, prompting Erin to give her a confused look; before the physicist had the chance to say anything though, the engineer mumbled “bathroom” and hurried off, feeling Erin’s eyes on her back as she moved away.

_Of course she’s staring after you, probably glad you’re going away and that she has some peace for a while. What, you think she’d be into you? Look at her, she’s brilliant and gorgeous, she has no need for a dumpster-diving weirdo like you._

The thought made her heart clench up, and she quickly locked the bathroom door behind herself to get a bit of privacy; sitting down on the closed toilet lid, Holtzmann took a few deep breaths, trying to get her thoughts under control, not quite sure where all of this was suddenly coming from.

Alone in her bed at night, she sometimes had such thoughts, wondered if she had the slightest chance with Erin or if she was keeping her hopes up for nothing; Erin seemed to react more relaxed to her flirting lately, less awkward and more flattered, but still she had no idea if Erin actually was interested in women or if she was straight as a board.

Holding back a sigh, Holtzmann came to her feet again, realizing it would be suspicious if she stayed in her for too long; she moved over to the sink and turned on the cold water, then moved her glasses up into her hair before she bent down and splashed some of the water onto her face.

When she straightened up again and got a look at herself in the mirror, her face was covered in blood.

Holtzmann let out a shocked yelp and stumbled back from the sink, bumping into the toilet behind her; the unexpected obstacle prompted her to lose her footing, and she crashed to the floor, yelping in pain this time.

While she still struggled to her feet, she heard hurried footsteps run up to the bathroom door, followed by someone knocking the wood and Erin calling out to her; the physicist sounding alarmed, making her wonder dully how loud she had been, and she only felt more dismayed when she remembered that she had locked the door.

“Holtzmann?” Erin called out again, trying the handle and finding the door locked, “Holtz, are you okay?”

“Fine”, Holtzmann gave back, even though she had hit her back quite painfully on the toilet when she had fallen; she looked at herself in the mirror again, not quite sure what to feel when the blood was gone, just a few drops of water left, clinging to her hair.

Quickly, she moved to the door and unlocked it, and the moment she opened it, Erin could tell that something had happened, just from how pale and shaken up the engineer looked; alarmed again, she wanted to know what was going on, placing one hand on Holtzmann’s shoulder in a helpless attempt to comfort her.

“I’m not even sure what happened”, Holtzmann gave back, looking back at the mirror as if she expected something to happen, “I… I washed my face and when I straightened up again, I was all bloody.”

Erin knew better than to dismiss this outright, despite the fact that no blood was visible anywhere on Holtzmann; she gave her a worried look, then peered past her into the bathroom, not surprised though when she saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she wanted to know as she focused on the engineer again, “it sounded as if you fell pretty hard.”

“Yeah, my back is not gonna be happy tomorrow”, Holtzmann admitted, earning another concerned look, “but I’m more worried about the blood thing. I mean, I know I’m a bit crazy, but seeing things like that?”

“You’re not crazy”, Erin corrected her at once, “you’re eccentric. And that is a good thing. Also, after what happened today with the laptops, the bulb and the PKE meter, this doesn’t seem so shocking anymore.”

“Good point”, Holtzmann had to admit, earning a small smile from the physicist; then, Erin suggested they should head back and tell the others what had happened, and the engineer agreed, managing to push the dark thoughts out of her mind as she followed Erin back to the lounge, telling herself that, even if perhaps Erin would never love her back, they at least were friends, Erin cared for her, and she could be happy with that if that would be all she’d get.


	7. Chapter 7

The moment Erin sat down on the couch, she smiled at Holtzmann and patted her lap invitingly, and Holtzmann figured that it was okay for her to rest there if the physicist invited her like this; certainly, Erin wouldn’t do so if it made her uncomfortable, and so, Holtzmann got into her usual position again, grimacing once she had gotten comfortable and Patty asked her what had happened in the bathroom to cause such a loud crash.

“Our new houseguest is acting up, it seems”, she then said, both Abby and Patty frowning at this, “I washed my face at the bathroom and when I straightened up and looked in the mirror, I was covered in blood, it was freaky.”

“Yikes”, Abby let out while Patty looked startled, “no surprise you ended up falling on your butt, that must have been creepy.”

“It was”, Holtzmann confirmed with another grimace, earning a sympathetic look from Erin before the physicist made her smile again by moving one hand to pat her hair reassuringly, a gesture which might have seemed odd from anyone else, but which felt quite nice coming from Erin, “and indeed, it made me fall on my poor butt. But maybe that little trick will help us figure out what we’re dealing with.”

“Illusions like these should make it a bit easier to narrow things down”, Patty agreed, “I’ll look for that when I do more research tomorrow.”

The others nodded at that, and, as there wasn’t much more they could do for now, then focused on the movie again; and as they watched, Erin’s hand moved to Holtzmann’s hair again and started to play with the soft looks, Holtzmann looking so content in response that Erin was sure she would have started purring, had she been physically capable of doing so.

Seeing Holtzmann relax visibly, Erin kept moving her fingers through her hair, unaware of how Abby and Patty glanced at her every now and then, then at each other; her own focus alternated between Holtzmann and the movie, and she felt oddly forlorn by the time said movie as over and Holtzmann sat up again.

_Well, there’ll be another movie night_ , she then told herself while Abby switched off the TV and suggested they should all get some rest now, all of them very aware that the entity they apparently had in the firehouse now could make sleep difficult for them if it wanted to, _and you know she’ll end up in your lap again, she seems to like it there._

She smiled to herself at the thought, then realized what she was doing and blushed, glad that none of the others asked her what was so funny; Holtzmann had noticed at least, eying her curiously, but didn’t make a comment, instead just nodding at Abby’s suggestion.

“I suggest that, if anything happens, the lady it happens to screams on top of her lungs”, she then said, Erin making a face at the thought, but knowing it made sense, “with our rooms next to each other, the others should hear and be able to come running and help.”

“I’ll yell if you snore again like you did the last time we all slept here”, Patty threatened, making the engineer snicker, “seriously, at first, I thought a wild bear is rumbling around in the room next to mine. I bet Erin heard it, too.”

Momentarily, Erin was torn, she had heard it, but she didn’t want to gang up on Holtzmann with Patty like that; and so, she just shrugged, Patty shaking her head as she commented on how the physicist could probably sleep through a nuclear strike without being bothered the slightest.

“Anyway, I’ll yell”, she said again for emphasis, “now sleep well, you dorks, and let’s hope the ghost won’t pull any mean tricks.”

The other three nodded at this, and retreated to their rooms; they all stayed up a bit longer, reading or working, before they went to bed one by one, unaware of what the night had in store for them.

* * *

Part of Erin knew that she was dreaming, but that didn’t make the whole thing any easier.

She had fallen asleep fairly quickly, a somewhat rare thing for her – more often than not, she spent a while tossing and turning, but apparently, sleeping at the firehouse with her room between Abby’s and Holtzmann’s was good for her rest, since she had drifted off much faster than usual.

When she opened her eyes again, her room at the firehouse was gone, and she stood in a lecture hall instead… and she was completely naked.

This was so clichéd that it would have been ridiculous, had she not felt so frightened and ashamed – and had the lecture hall not been filled with people she knew, former colleagues, ex-boyfriends taking up the seats, and her three closest friends sitting in the front row, Abby looking annoyed while Patty appeared startled and Holtzmann just sat with her arms crossed and smirked.

And it wasn’t a nice smirk, either, it was malicious and clearly meant to make fun of her, and it hurt.

“Doctor Gilbert”, she heard Filmore’s voice say, with that tone she had always dreaded during her time at Columbia, because it meant she had said or done something he didn’t approve of, “certainly you are not serious. Ghosts?”

She turned to look at the board behind herself, the words “Ghosts From Our Past” scrawled onto the white surface; and while she still looked, they all started laughing, and she knew that they were laughing at her.

“She believed we’re all Ghostbusters”, Holtzmann crowed, coming to her feet, laughing with the rest of them, “she obviously has to go back to therapy! That freak!”

Erin wanted to scream at this point, wanted to scream so the others would hear her and come running; all which left her throat as she slept though was a soft, helpless whimper, tears streaming down her face as they kept laughing and laughing and laughing, and no one could hear her, and no one came to wake her up.

One room over, Abby was caught in a different nightmare; unlike Erin, she wasn’t aware that she was asleep, had no idea that she was trapped in a bad dream as she got out of bed and wrapped both arms around herself, suddenly feeling oddly cold.

“Hello?” she called out, for some reason just sure that she was alone, “Erin? Patty? Holtzmann? …Kevin?”

Nobody answered her, and she shuddered as she walked to the door and pushed it open; the hallway was dark, and the smell was weird, somehow mouldy and old, and the floor felt oddly spongy beneath her feet when she stepped outside.

She went to Erin’s room, the one closest to hers, and pushed the door open; the room was empty, not a single piece of furniture inside, and checking Holtzmann’s and Patty’s rooms showed that they were the same, empty and dirty and cobwebs in the corners, looking as if nobody had been in there for years.

Swallowing heavily, Abby went down the stairs, just to find the rest of the firehouse as empty and neglected as the bedrooms; feeling helpless, she turned in a circle, briefly considering calling out again, then realizing it would do no good, that she was alone, that she had been abandoned, and not just by Erin this time, but by all three of her friends.

And just when she had that thought, the door flew open and a whole army of journalists flooded the lobby, taking her picture and yelling over one another; trying to shield her eyes from the bright flashes of the cameras, Abby felt the panic rise, and it only grew when she got to understand some of the things the men and women were asking.

“Is it true the Ghostbusters disbanded?” one of them yelled, followed by another, “is it true they all left you? That you are frauds? That none of this was ever real? Is it true Dr Yates? Is it true is it true is it true is it is it is it it…”

Just like Erin, Abby didn’t scream… and just like Erin, she had no one to wake her up, her tears staining the pillow as she tossed and turned.

Patty also had no idea that she was in a dream, as unaware as Abby when she got out of bed and made her way downstairs for breakfast, the dream telling her it was early in the morning; Abby, Erin and Holtzmann were already in the kitchen, and with them, a fourth woman, Holtzmann’s age, all four looking at her when she entered.

“Patty”, Abby said, in an oddly cold voice, a tone Patty never had heard from her before, “good you’re here. I’m sorry, but we have to let you go.”

“What?” Patty could only reply, completely blindsided by this; the woman, she noticed as she took a closer look, looked even stiffer than Erin had had at the very beginning, her face expressionless and her eyes cold as she held Patty’s gaze.

“Nothing personal”, Erin said, sounding as cold as Abby, “but we figured that we should _all_ be scientists. So we found a proper historian. You know, one who studied this and knows what she is doing. We have no more need for you.”

“You have an hour to pack up”, Holtzmann added, smiling in a rather mean way, “since the books over there were bought with our funding, we’ll keep them. Good luck at your old job, Pattycakes.”

“You can’t do that”, Patty said, hating the tremble in her voice, but unable to hold it back; Abby just smiled, Holtzmann grinned, and Erin shrugged, and then they spoke up again, they did so in perfect unison.

“We can, and we will”, they said, Patty taking a step back at the indifference, something which hurt her more than outright anger would have, she had thought they were friends, “you’re fired, Miss Tolan. Leave! Leave! Leave!”

Patty sobbed in her sleep, but not allowed to be heard, and no one came to wake her up.

Holtzmann was aware that she was dreaming, like Erin, but that didn’t help her much, like it hadn’t helped Erin; she found herself at a random bust, ghosts whooshing past them left and right, cackling and screaming, ready to kill them all the moment they’d make the smallest mistake.

Judging from the smell which began to rise from Erin’s proton pack next to her, she’d been the one to make a mistake, long before the bust.

She tried to call out, tried to warn Erin, but no sound left her mouth, and she found herself not only silenced, but unable to move, as well; and so, all she could do was stand there and watch helplessly how Erin aimed her proton wand, unaware of the danger right there on her back.

_No, no, no, no, Erin, no,_ Holtzmann’s mind played in an endless loop, but no sound left her throat, she was frozen and silenced, and Erin had no idea that she was about to die when she pushed the trigger.

Her proton pack exploded, right there on her back, and tore her apart, and Holtzmann wasn’t frozen anymore, and unlike the others, she could scream, and she did so, she screamed out loud, screamed denial and Erin’s name.

She felt someone grab her, and that only made her panic grow… until she heard Erin’s voice, saying her name, urgently, but not sounding as if she was in pain.

“Holtz!” she heard Erin again, and realized that she wasn’t dreaming anymore, that the weight of the proton pack was gone from her back and that she could actually feel the mattress beneath her body, and when she opened her eyes, the lights were on, and the other three Ghostbusters were standing around her bed.

She still noticed that they all looked as if they had been crying – before she burst into tears herself, and clung to Erin, reassuring herself that the physicist was alive and well as she cried, Erin holding her close and rubbing her back, exchanging looks with Abby and Patty as she realized that all four of them had had horrible nightmares, afraid of what this might mean.


	8. Chapter 8

They all wrote down what they had dreamed about at Patty’s advice, to make sure they wouldn’t forget; and then, the four of them each went to their room again, but Erin found herself unable to sleep, staring up at the ceiling, unable to stop thinking of her nightmare.

It was frightening, how easily the entity had found her biggest and deepest fears and had used them against her; not only had it brought up her fear of people seeing her as a fraud, but Holtzmann’s reaction to her sans clothing had been painful, too, and something she was very frightened off, always fearing that she wasn’t adequate whenever she let someone see her naked in any sort of romantic context.

She tossed and turned for a bit, then gave up and sighed to herself as she realized that sleep would elude her for now, probably for the rest of the night; and just when she decided to read instead of rolling around in bed uselessly for a while longer, thinking that reading might make her tired again, she heard the door to her left open, frowning to herself when she realized it was Holtzmann’s room.

_Guess I’m not the only one who can’t sleep_ , she thought to herself, momentarily not sure if she should go after Holtzmann or if she should pretend she hadn’t heard, not sure if Holtz might want some time alone or her company; then, she thought back to how the engineer had cried after they had managed to wake her up, and decided that she at least should check if she was okay and got out of bed, trying her best to be quiet as she snuck out of her room.

Just as quietly, she moved past Holtzmann’s and Patty’s room, hearing soft sounds from the engineer’s lab; hoping that it was actually Holtz and not the ghost making these sounds, Erin went there, relieved and worried at the same time when she found the engineer sitting at one of her workbenches, still in the oversized shirt and the boxers she wore to bed, her back to Erin, her head bent as she was working on the proton pack lying on the workbench in front of her.

Not sure if Holtzmann had heard her approach, and not wanting to scare her, Erin stopped in the doorway and, when there was no visibly reaction from the younger woman, cleared her throat; Holtzmann paused her work, then turned on the barstool she used whenever she wanted to sit during her lap, Erin feeling a bit less worried when the blonde managed a weak smile as their eyes met.

“Hey”, Erin said, still worried as, even with Holtzmann wearing her safety goggles, she could see the dark rings beneath the engineer’s eyes, “couldn’t sleep, either?”

“No”, Holtzmann mumbled, looking at the proton pack again for a moment before her gaze returned to Erin, “my nightmare was… really bad. I can’t go to sleep before I made sure everything is fine here.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Erin wanted to know, walking over to her and prompting Holtzmann to pull out the second barstool from beneath the workbench so she could sit down too, “you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but if you do want to, I’m here, you know. I mean, I don’t want to talk about my nightmare, cause it was really bad, but if you do want to talk…”

She realized that she was rambling and made herself shut up, feeling her cheeks flush; thankfully, Holtzmann either didn’t notice or was kind enough to not let any reaction show, just letting out a small sigh before she shrugged, looking at the proton pack yet again.

“It was… bad”, she finally said out loud, “I’m… really not ready to say more right now, it was just… bad.”

“Okay”, Erin nodded, smiling at her to show there were no hard feelings about Holtzmann not wanting to talk, “so was mine, like I said. Um… Patty’s idea to write them down was good, but I don’t think I will forget that anytime soon.”

“Same”, Holtzmann mumbled, glancing at the proton pack yet again; Erin figured at seeing this that her nightmare had had something to do with the equipment, but she knew better than to ask, just reaching out instead and placing her hand on Holtzmann’s forearm, glad when she earned a little smile in response.

“It must have been our new houseguest”, she said instead of asking Holtzmann about her nightmare, “after the blood thing it did to you, bad dreams kinda sorta fit, don’t they?”

“Yeah”, Holtzmann had to agree, glad that Erin not only simply accepted her reluctance to talk about her nightmare, but also that her words had given her something else to think about, “it really does. It’s like… it looked into my mind, saw my biggest fears and made a nightmare out of them. My very own personal horror movie, and it was not a fun one.”

“And unlike you, I don’t even like horror movies”, Erin said with a grimace, smiling again though at the small snort Holtzmann let out, “but maybe, this knowledge will make it easier to figure out what we’re dealing with. Then we can adjust the PKE meter, too.”

In response, Holtzmann took tender hold of her bandaged hand and lifted it a bit, her gentle touch sending pleasant shivers up and down Erin’s spine; she couldn’t stop herself from swallowing heavily and from blushing again, and apparently, Holtzmann had noticed this time, since she looked up from Erin’s hand and their eyes met yet again.

Her thumb ran over the back of Erin’s hand in a mostly subconscious gesture, and the physicist shuddered again, visibly this time; her gaze dropped to Holtzmann’s lips for a moment before it came back up to meet her eyes again, her heart racing in her chest now as suddenly, she just knew she would kiss Holtzmann a second or two from now, and she was quite sure that Holtzmann wanted her to, the engineer still holding on to her hand.

Telling herself that now, it was time to act and not time to think, Erin started to lean in, her breath hitching as she realized how close she was to the engineer already, how small the distance between them was… and just before her lips could find Holtzmann’s, all the cabinets Holtzmann had up in the lab flew open and everything which had been inside them fell out and to the floor, creating a tremendous cacophony and making them both jump.

“Jesus!” Erin cried out, despite her dismay still noticing how Holtzmann had let go of her hand out of sheer reflex, “what the Heck?!”

“Did you really just say Heck”, Holtzmann wanted to know, sounding amused despite the scare they had gotten a moment ago, the corners of her mouth twitching as she tried to hold back a smile; Erin blushed again and shrugged, then mumbled “cursing was frowned upon at Columbia” before she looked at the chaos, not surprised that Abby and Patty came running a few moments later.

“What the Hell happened here”, Abby demanded to know as she looked at the chaos, and suddenly Erin was glad that Holtzmann had let go of her hand, Patty blinking as she stared at the mess, “we heard this loud crash, are you guys okay?”

“Yeah”, Holtzmann was the one to answer, sighing as she did not like the thought of cleaning all of this up, “I guess our houseguest is acting up. Or upping its game, after that nightmare shit.”

“Rude”, Patty commented, making the other three nod, while Erin wondered if the entity’s sole goal had been to stop them from kissing; the thought of a ghost in the house not wanting them to kiss, for whatever reason, made her more uneasy than the idea of the ghost sending them their worst fears as nightmares, even though she wasn’t quite sure why.

“Very”, Holtzmann said, hopping off the barstool, “and I really do not feel like cleaning all of this up now. It can wait until tomorrow.”

Abby looked sceptical at that, but didn’t try to protest; she noticed the look Holtzmann gave Erin, brief and oddly apologetic, then the engineer was moving past her and saying “good night guys” as she walked to her bedroom, Erin looking after her and feeling oddly forlorn, as if a great chance just had been missed.


	9. Chapter 9

In the next morning, all four of them looked tired, even the ever energetic Holtzmann, the four women clearly feeling the sleep they had lost thanks to their houseguest; Holtzmann was clutching her coffee cup as if her life depended on it, and Erin was seriously considering just lying down beneath the coffee machine and let the liquid trickle directly into her mouth.

_Bad idea_ , she cautioned herself, opting for a regular refill of her own mug instead, _too hot. Would hurt. God, I’m tired._

“God, I’m tired”, Holtzmann groaned, missing the surprised look Erin shot her for saying her thoughts out loud like that, “I think I’ll take a nap after breakfast. I can’t build anything like this, I’ll blow us all up.”

“A nap sounds great”, Erin sighed, with a longing look towards the lounge and the couch there, “but we can’t nap, Holtz, we have to find out what this ghost exactly is. So we know how to find it. And fight it. I’m tired.”

“Me too”, Abby said, fighting the urge to let her head drop down onto the kitchen table, “but Erin’s right, we can’t nap. And what if a bust gets called in? We can’t risk going on a bust right after being woken up from a nap.”

Holtzmann just sighed, then looked at her coffee mug with dismay, emptying it with one large gulp before she went for a refill; she hoped that the caffeine would kick in fast, all too aware of the hours of sleep she had lost thanks to the nightmare and the time she had spent at her lab afterwards.

Telling herself though that it would be unfair to take a nap while the others worked, she let them know that she’d be up at her lab; the others nodded, and Erin told her to be careful, glad when Holtzmann gave her a brief smile and a nod.

She still felt a bit awkward after the almost-kiss from the previous night, knowing that they would have kissed, had their houseguest not interrupted them with a rather impressive Poltergeist impression; she wondered if they’d get another moment like this, just the two of them, and if the entity would actually let them make use of it, or if it, for some reason, would interrupt them again.

Thinking back to the interruption made Erin frown, as she found herself wondering why a ghost would bother with this; clearly, the entity had impressive powers, able to frighten Holtzmann with an illusion of blood and sending them all horrible nightmares, and compared to this, stopping Holtz and her from kissing seemed oddly petty, childish, almost.

“You okay?” Patty’s voice interrupted her thoughts, and she looked up feeling oddly guilty, as if her thoughts about wanting to kiss Holtzmann were written all over her face; she knew that neither Abby, nor Patty would judge her for this desire, but still it made her nervous, and she was glad when she saw only mild concern on the other woman’s face.

“Fine”, she said, making herself smile, “just tired, last night was exhausting. So… should we get started on the research? We do have more to work with now.”

“Let’s go”, Patty said, smiling as well now, “and let’s hope the caffeine is gonna kick in soon. That night really was exhausting.”

“Poke me in case I fall asleep”, Erin sighed, making the historian laugh and nod; then, they each grabbed their coffee cup and headed to Patty’s little library, eager to get started and hopefully find out what sort of entity they were dealing with.

* * *

A while later, Erin put down the book she had been going through with a heavy sigh, and rubbed her tired eyes; Patty was lost in her own text, not even looking up at Erin’s sound of dismay, and only letting out a vaguely agreeing noise when Erin said she’d check on Holtzmann and then get more coffee.

Carefully, knowing how much Patty cared about her books, Erin put the volume down onto the table, then got up from her seat and moved to the stairs; already as she started climbing them, she could hear Holtzmann work, hoping that the caffeine had kicked for the engineer in, too, not wanting her to blow something up and get hurt due to not paying full attention.

It was not surprising that Holtzmann was sitting at one of her workbenches, at the very barstool she had been using the previous night; this time, she heard Erin come though and stopped her work, turned on her seat and smiled, Erin immediately smiling back at her.

“Hey”, she said, moving over to her just like she had the previous night, glancing around as she did so, “you cleaned up already? That was fast. You should have said something, I would have helped.”

“Not with your hand all hurt”, Holtzmann gave back, nodding at the bandage, “speaking of which, we should change that bandage. And it was fast anyway, the stuff laid right beneath the cabinets it’s supposed to be in, I just had to bend down and pick it up.”

“My hand hurts a lot less today, you know”, Erin pointed out, touched by Holtzmann’s concern for her; Holtzmann shrugged and gave her another smile, and she felt her heart flutter, once more thinking back to their almost-kiss.

“It might now”, the engineer then said, shrugging, “but it’ll hurt much more again when you try to grab something. Trust me, I’ve burned my hand like that before. You want me to change that bandage?”

“Please”, Erin gave back, her hand tingling pleasantly at the thought of Holtzmann touching her so gently again; Holtzmann smiled and nodded, then got up from her seat and went to retrieve the first aid kit, asking Erin to sit down when she came back with it.

Erin did so, watching in silence how Holtzmann undid the bandage and checked the wound; she nodded, appearing satisfied with how it was healing, smiling again when she looked up at the physicist again.

“Looks good”, she said, making Erin smile yet again, “I’d have been worried if it had been… wet, or something.”

“Ew”, Erin let out, her smile fading; Holtzmann gave her an apologetic look, then found a fresh pack of soft gauze, asking Erin to hold still before she started wrapping her hand again, making sure to cover all of the injury and that the gauze wasn’t wrapped too tightly.

“Thank you”, Erin said as Holtzmann got done and tied a careful knot, “you’re really good at this.”

“Practice”, Holtzmann gave back, and at this moment, Erin noticed that she was still holding on to her hand; she didn’t pull away though, and neither did Holtzmann, holding her gaze, and Erin suddenly was quite sure that she could see longing and hope in the younger woman’s eyes.

For a moment, she thought of the ghost again, of the interruption, and almost stopped herself, not wanting to risk it again… before she told herself not to be silly, that she couldn’t let a ghost dictate her actions and thoughts like that, and so, she acted without thinking about all possible outcomes for once, leaned in and kissed Holtzmann, hoping with all her heart that this wouldn’t end badly.

Holtzmann kissed her back at once, and Erin was so relieved that she felt as if she was levitating, moving her arm around the other woman’s waist and pulling her closer, only feeling better when Holtzmann let go of her hand and embraced her with both arms.

The fact that this time, the ghost didn’t interrupt them only made her relief grow, and she had to hold back a moan when the kiss deepened, suddenly just wishing that Holtzmann would lift her up, put her on the workbench and do amazing things to her; clearly, the engineer wanted to take things slower than that though, pulling back from the kiss at last, a wide, happy smile on her face.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while”, Erin mumbled, blushing at admitting this even though she now knew for sure she wouldn’t be rejected, “I just… didn’t dare to. But after we almost kissed yesterday, it seemed like the right thing to do now.”

“I’m glad you did it”, Holtzmann said, making her smile again, cheeks still reddened, “cause I’ve been wanting to do it for a while too, but I didn’t want to be pushy, so… I’d like to do it again.”

“You can do it as often as you like”, Erin let her know, earning another bright smile – before Holtzmann leaned in for another kiss, and for a little while, they both forgot all about the ghost plaguing them as they focused on each other and on how good and right this felt.


	10. Chapter 10

“Hey guys”, Abby said as she came up the stairs, with the intention to ask the two if they were fine with Mexican for lunch, “Patty and I are gonna holy crap!”

Erin and Holtzmann flinched apart, feeling oddly caught even though Erin knew that Abby had been perfectly aware of her crush on Holtzmann; she felt her cheeks flush and cleared her throat, shooting the engineer a strict look when she realized that Holtzmann was looking not startled, but mostly smug.

“I did not expect that”, Abby said, smiling though as she got over her surprise fairly quickly, “but it’s about damn time. Congrats, you two, if I had known a ghost haunting our firehouse would help you along, I would have freed one from the containment unit myself.”

“Well, it didn’t solve our ghost problem”, Erin had to admit, smiling at Holtzmann again, her lips still tingling from the kiss, “but it certainly did feel good.”

“And how”, Holtzmann agreed at once, making Abby snicker; then, she finally asked if Mexican was okay and, once both Erin and Holtzmann had agreed and had told her what they wanted, Erin blushing again at what Abby called out to Patty as she walked back to the stairs.

“They say Mexican is fine!” the researcher was hollering, “and I caught them making out up here at the lab!”

“Finally!” Patty shouted back, and Erin hid her face against Holtzmann’s shoulder, cheeks flaming; the engineer snickered and rubbed her back, clearly not as perturbed as Erin was, taking the whole situation much easier.

“How embarrassing”, Erin mumbled into the engineer’s shoulder, “don’t get me wrong, I wanted them to know, but I didn’t want them to find out by walking in on us kissing.”

“They’re happy for us though”, Holtzmann pointed out, smiling; this made Erin raise her head again at last, and she smiled too as she nodded, her cheeks still reddened though, even though the blush was slowly fading again.

“I’m glad they are”, she said, making Holtzmann nod at once, “it would have been really bad if they’d been troubled about it or something… Abby knew I have a thing for you, you know, but she also knew it’d take me some time to come to terms with it and to… do something about it, I’m really happy and grateful you gave me that time.”

“Nothing to be grateful for”, Holtzmann gave back, shaking her head for emphasis, “come on, what kind of person would I be if I tried to push or something, that’d be wrong and creepy. I’m just so happy that you kissed me now, you know, I never would have dared to make the first move like that.”

“Aw, come on”, Erin teased, smiling again, “the reckless and brave Holtzmann, dancer with blowtorches, causer of poofs and builder of possibly deadly gadgets, was worried about making the first move?”

“I’ve never been before”, Holtzmann replied, oddly solemn, Erin’s smile slowly fading as the younger woman’s next words touched her deeply, “but it never meant as much as what I feel for you has. And I didn’t want to scare you, or make you feel rushed, so…”

“Aw”, was all Erin could let out, her throat suddenly oddly tight; and so, instead of saying something else, she pulled Holtzmann close for another kiss, not holding back a sigh this time when the kiss deepened and Holtzmann’s arms wrapped around her, making her feel happier and better than she had in a long time.

* * *

A while later, Erin was at her desk, having decided to forego research with Patty for trying to find something online; she was quite sure she wouldn’t be all too successful with this, but figured that she had to try, and now was looking through millions of search results, skipping questionable fantasy novels and what looked like forums full of people who had no true idea what they were talking about.

Rubbing her eyes, she clicked on to the next page, hoping she would find something soon; even if she wouldn’t though, she told herself it was necessary to check, if only so they would have tried and would know for sure they hadn’t missed anything.

_Passionate Lover: Ghost between my Sheets – A Novel_

_In His Transparent Arms – A Novel_

_Help, I might have a demon in my house – Forum for Occultism and Spiritual Experiences_

_Am I being haunted? – Forum for Occultism and Spiritual Experiences_

Erin shook her head at these links – they had looked at the forum before, thinking that perhaps, they might end up finding someone there who genuinely needed their help, but it had been impossible to distinguish between people who were serious and people who were just making stuff up to troll the other members of the board.

She moved on to the next page, telling herself that she could look through one more, just to make sure… and just then, she heard Abby’s voice from the kitchen, and her blood ran cold at what her best friend was saying.

“…maybe not a good idea”, Abby said, Erin sitting perfectly still as she listened, wondering if Abby knew that she was within earshot, “this thing with Erin and Holtz, I mean. What if they break up? Erin can be a handful, you know, what with her issues and her constant worries what people think of her.”

“Yah I know”, Patty’s voice responded, and Erin’s heart broke, “but we can’t tell her, can we, she’ll only get defensive and pissed. Maybe we should talk to Holtzy, tell her she can do way better than an uptight, repressed physicist with bad taste in clothing.”

_You know she can_ , the treacherous voice of Erin’s anxiety whispered to her, _you know Patty’s right. Holtz can do better._

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, telling herself that perhaps, Holtzmann truly could do better, but Holtzmann wanted to be with her, had shown through word and deed that she wanted to be with her; Abby and Patty were still talking, discussing all the ways this could go wrong and destroy the team, but Erin refused to listen for another moment, coming to her feet somewhat harshly as she suddenly just needed to be in Holtzmann’s arms.

She didn’t even bother to switch off or close her laptop, not caring the slightest that this was wasting energy; and so, as she turned away and hurried towards the stairs, she missed the brief flicker of the screen, the search results becoming oddly distorted, something which might have given her pause if she had seen it.


	11. Chapter 11

Erin hurried up the stairs so fast it was a miracle she didn’t end up stumbling and falling, the need to feel Holtzmann’s arms around her again almost overwhelming; she spotted Holtzmann at once the moment she reached the top of the stairs, only to nearly stumble after all once she got another look at the lab and saw Abby right there, standing next to the blonde, both women looking at her in concern.

“Erin?” Holtzmann was the first to say something, taking a step closer to her, “are you okay, did something happen? You’re all pale.”

“Is Patty up here?” Erin wanted to know in response, not really making sense to Holtzmann or Abby, both looking confused, Abby being the one to answer this time as she shook her head.

“No”, she said, giving Erin another concerned look, “she went to the library, because apparently there is nothing good in her books. Erin, again, are you okay?”

In response, Erin hurried forward so fast that Abby was taken aback a bit – and then she hugged her best friend, tight enough to momentarily cut off her flow of air.

“Group hug!” Holtzmann enthusiastically called out before Abby had the chance to say something, somehow managing to throw both arms around both Erin and the researcher despite being the shortest of the three, “I love group hugs! Why are we group hugging?”

“The ghost”, Erin realized at this very moment, “it was… I don’t know, using the voices of Patty and you, Abby and… it said some very… hurtful things.”

Abby knew better than to ask straight out what exactly the ghost had said, grimacing at the idea of the entity using her voice to hurt Erin; judging from how pale Erin was though, and from how upset she had looked when she had come up to the lab, it had been very hurtful indeed, and she was glad that Erin had seen through it so quickly.

“I should have known better”, Erin mumbled right in this moment, as if to contradict her thoughts, “I should have known you guys would never… say such things, I’m sorry I believe it for even a second…”

“It’s okay”, Abby reassured her, even though she had no idea still what exactly the ghost had said, “with how this ghost seems capable of reading our deepest and darkest fears, it probably knew exactly what it had to say to upset you the most.”

Erin nodded, still feeling bad about how quickly she had believed it truly was Abby and Patty talking about the newly formed relationship; Abby gave her a calming smile, then distracted her from her dark thoughts by asking if she had found anything useful on the internet.

“No”, Erin sighed, “just weird novels – did you know there’s an astounding number of books about sex with ghosts out there? – and forum posts where one can never be sure if it’s serious or a troll. I guess we’ll have to stick to the books, maybe Patty will find something at the library.”

“Hopefully”, Abby gave back, while Holtzmann stepped back from the group hug and released them both to end their embrace as well, Erin only now realizing how long it actually had been going on already, “because if not, we have no further places where we could research, and we still wouldn’t know how to detect and capture that ghost.”

“If anyone can find it, it’s Patty”, Holtzmann solemnly stated, making Erin smile and nod, “she’s like the Queen of research.”

“True”, Erin agreed, Abby nodding, as well; then, the engineer stated that she would get back to work, Abby and Erin figuring that she could need some peace and quiet for this, only for Holtzmann to stop the physicist from leaving by grabbing her wrist.

“Don’t be a stranger”, she mumbled, kissing the older woman gently afterwards; Erin felt her knees go weak at the kiss, cheeks flushed again as she smiled and nodded, then followed Abby downstairs, her pain forgotten as she once again was happy and content.

* * *

While they waited for Patty to come back with hopefully some good findings, Erin went back to her laptop, deciding that she might as well give it another try, just to keep busy; as she worked, she heard Abby call out to Kevin for another coffee, the tall man hurrying to fulfil the request, by now even remembering that he was supposed to put sugar in it. 

Focusing on her work again, Erin tuned out Abby and Kevin talking, keeping her gaze fixed on the laptop; she got so absorbed by her search that she didn’t hear the footsteps approach, and actually jumped when she felt fingers caress her throat, thinking for a moment it was Holtzmann, belatedly realizing that the hand was too large to belong to the engineer.

Frowning, she turned her head to look, her frown deepening when she saw it was Kevin; he smiled at her, his usual dopey smile, didn’t pull back his hand though, not even when he saw that not all too pleased look on her face.

“Kevin”, Erin said, not all too eloquent, but not quite sure what to think of this – Kevin was friendly with her, with all four of them, but this was a touch which was closer to romantic than just friendly, and she wasn’t quite sure what was going on.

_He didn’t just process now that I found him hot when he started here, did he_ , Erin thought to herself, suddenly feeling the urge to move back, away from him, _no one can be_ that _slow._

“I’m not”, Kevin said, and for a moment, Erin thought she had said this out loud… before his smile changed, warped into something malicious, and his hand turned, her breath suddenly caught off when his fingers closed tight around her throat.

She wanted to scream for help, but could only let out a barely audible wheeze; smirking cruelly, Kevin lifted her up until she was dangling in the air, her feet kicking helplessly as he held her up with ease, an eerie red glow shining from his eyes now as he stared at her.

Grabbing his arm, she tried to dig her nails into his skin to make him let go, but if he felt any pain, none of it showed through his features; growing desperate, Erin beat down on his arm instead, but it was like hitting a rock, and his grip on her throat didn’t loosen up even the tiniest bit.

_He’s killing me_ , she thought to herself as darkness started to spread in her field of vision, black flowers blooming as the lack of air took a toll, _he’s killing me and nobody notices… Holtz I’m sorry we should have had more time I’m sorry…_

She heard something break and thought that maybe, one of her flailing feet had hit something even though she hadn’t felt any impact; and then the grip around her throat was gone and she was falling, trying to suck air through her burning throat into her equally burning lungs, the darkness spreading further and taking over, and she didn’t even feel it anymore when she hit the ground.


	12. Chapter 12

“Erin!” Holtzmann cried out the moment Kevin had gone down and let go of her, dropping the chair she had hit him with as she ran to the physicist’s side; Erin laid crumpled in a heap, not moving, and Holtzmann’s panic reached new heights, bigger than it had been when she had come downstairs for a drink and had seen Kevin choke her girlfriend.

“Erin, come on, please”, she babbled as she moved her hands to touch her, then stopped herself, not sure if that might make it worse, running both hands nervously through her hair after a moment, “Erin, wake up, please? Abby! _Abby_! I need help!”

Abby was there before she even had finished talking, having heard the enormous crash when Holtzmann had hit Kevin; she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw their secretary on the ground, unmoving, but appearing conscious as he was moving a bit, Erin lying a few feet away next to her desk, her body frighteningly still, her face dreadfully pale.

“What happened?!” she demanded to know, forcing herself to snap out of her shock so she could rush to Holtzmann’s side; the engineer gave her a helpless look and shrugged, sounding as if she was close to tears when she responded.

“I don’t know”, she said, even though as she spoke, a vague idea of what might have happened started to form in her racing mind, “I came downstairs to get a drink and Kevin, he was choking her, holding her up… She’s not waking up Abby, we have to get her to wake up!”

“Or call an ambulance”, Abby gave back, kneeling down next to Erin, the physicist still lifeless on the floor, “is she breathing…?”

“I don’t know”, Holtzmann said again, wringing her hands, “I didn’t think to check, oh God, what if she hasn’t been all this time and she’s brain damaged and it’s my fault cause I didn’t check, didn’t breathe for her…”

As if to contradict her, Erin let out a low groan, and within the blink of an eye, Holtzmann was bending over her, now daring to put one hand on her arm, hoping that the touch would help bringing the physicist back to full consciousness; she said her name again, her voice trembling, and Erin groaned again in response, her eyelids fluttering.

“Erin”, Holtzmann said, trying hard to sound calm and reassuring, not wanting Erin to hear how close she was to full-blown panic, “Erin, come on. Come back to me. Wake up, please. Please wake up.”

She nearly cried after all when Erin slowly opened her eyes in response, looking dazed and somewhat confused; biting back her tears, Holtzmann smiled at her, now daring to move her other hand to caress her hair, even though she wasn’t quite sure Erin actually realized she was touching her, with how glassy her eyes still were.

“Erin”, she said again, rubbing her arm along with the caress of her hair, “do you know where you are? Who I am?”

“Firehouse”, Erin brought out, then winced at the pain speaking caused her, it felt as if her throat had been lined with gravel, even _breathing_ hurt, each breath burning down her throat like liquid fire, “Holtz. Hurts… Kevin…”

“I know”, Holtzmann gave back, “I saw, but it’s okay now, he won’t hurt you again, okay, I promise… Just stay with me now okay? Please?”

“Urch”, Erin let out, then coughed, only to wince again as this just made the pain in her throat worse; Holtzmann looked worried again, but at least, she figured, it didn’t seem as if Erin had to go to the hospital, the physicist’s eyes slowly clearing as she looked up at the concerned engineer.

“I’m so sorry”, Kevin chose this moment to join the little huddle around Erin, wringing his hands and, like Holtzmann, looking as if he was on the verge of tears, “I tried to stop it, I did, but it was strong, I couldn’t… I just sat there and suddenly…”

“It’s not your fault”, Abby reassured him, Holtzmann nodding her agreement and if her throat hadn’t hurt so badly, Erin would have nodded, too; Kevin still looked distraught though, taking a few steps back again to give them some room, as if suddenly realizing that Erin might not want him anywhere near her after what he had done.

“Come on”, Holtzmann realized that Erin was still on the floor, worried all over again, “you should lie down somewhere comfortable, I’ll help you up…”

Abby moved to help, as well, and together, they managed to get Erin up on her feet and, supporting her left and right, lead her to the couch; and for once, she ended up with her head in Holtzmann’s lap instead of the other way round, fighting the urge to close her eyes again as she told herself it couldn’t be good to drift off again so shortly after she’d been unconscious.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t call an ambulance”, Abby wanted to know, with a concerned look at the dark bruises which were already forming on Erin’s throat; she shook her head despite how this made the pain worse, briefly glancing at Kevin before she replied.

“Then we’d be split up”, she pointed out, having to swallow somewhat painfully before she could continue, “that might be… just what it wants. Even if Holtz stayed with me… we’d be split up.”

“If it didn’t try to kill you outright”, Holtzmann pointed out, making her grimace, “if I hadn’t come downstairs just when I did…”

“It might try again”, Abby said, neither of them very helpful for Erin’s state of dismay, “so Erin’s right, we should stay together, just to make sure. I better call Patty and make sure she’s okay.”

Holtzmann nodded, then moved her hand to caress Erin’s hair again; the physicist gave her a weak smile as she relaxed further, some colour returning to her face as she slowly recovered from what had happened.

“I’ll go make that call”, Abby said, sending that the newly formed couple could need some privacy; she walked off to give them just that, dragging a still distraught Kevin along, Holtzmann barely noticing though as she was focused fully on Erin, still caressing her hair with one hand while she moved the other to grasp one of Erin’s hands.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better”, she said, earning another weak smile from the physicist, “I was so scared when you were lifeless on the floor after Kevin… after that ghost hurt you. I thought I’d lost you.”

“I’ll be fine”, Erin reassured her, noticing that her voice was starting to sound somewhat hoarse, a delayed effect of being choked, she figured, “maybe gonna have a sore throat for a few days. But luckily you came downstairs before… it could go really wrong.”

“Been there, done that”, Holtzmann said with a grimace, reminding Erin that she wasn’t the only one who had been grabbed around the throat by a possessed person, and making her wonder if ghosts had a sort of thing for that, “and yeah, you’ll probably have a sore throat for a while. Tea with honey helps, I’ll make sure to keep you well supplied.”

“Thank you”, Erin gave back, with another smile; Holtzmann smiled back at her, then just held her and caressed her hair, glad that things hadn’t ended too badly and that soon, Erin would be completely fine again, not wanting to imagine how bad all of this could have ended.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some blood in this chapter, just a little heads-up ;)

Thankfully, nothing bad had happened to Patty while she had been out at the library, and she was shocked to hear what had gone on at the firehouse while she had been gone; Kevin still was distraught about having gotten possessed again, and tried to make up for what had happened by pampering Erin almost as much as Holtzmann did, bringing her water and a blanket and constantly asking if she needed anything.

“Poor Kev”, Erin showed sympathy once she had reassured him she was okay and had everything she needed, her head still resting in Holtzmann’s lap, having been there for so long that she started to wonder if the engineer’s legs were falling asleep, “he feels so bad, and it’s not even his fault.”

Holtzmann nodded her agreement, not letting it show if she was experiencing any sort of discomfort from all the time Erin had been lying on her; she’d rather have her legs go numb than let Erin out of her sight after what had happened, unwilling to move even an inch, because Erin looked relaxed and comfortable, and far better than she had right after she’d been attacked by possessed Kevin.

“Hey guys”, Abby distracted her from these thoughts as Patty and she came walking to the lounge area, the historian holding a fairly thick book in her arms, “Erin, how’re you feeling?”

“Better”, Erin truthfully said, Patty giving her a concerned look, having been told fairly detailed by Abby what exactly had happened, “throat still hurts, but that’s gonna last for a bit. Patty, you found something?”

“Something which might help a bit, at least”, Patty gave back, showing the book she had brought – _Ghosts and Other Dangers for the Mind_ -, “it’s about ghosts using thoughts and fears of their victims to harm them. We might find something useful in there, finally.”

“Finally indeed”, Erin sighed, glancing towards the receptionist’s desk where Kevin was sitting and staring at his screen, unmoving, “we really have to figure out how to get rid of this ghost before it can cause even more mayhem.”

Abby grimaced and nodded, Holtzmann looking dismayed when Erin chose this moment to sit up; she didn’t protest, but made sure to keep her arm around Erin’s shoulders after the physicist had turned a bit on the couch so that she ended up sitting next to the engineer.

“There’s several ghosts and entities which have that power”, Patty told them, opening the book and leafing through it until she found the bit which had caught her interest at the library, “reading minds and knowing the fears of their victims. Do we know if our ghost can read minds?”

“It can”, Erin said, thinking back to how Kevin had attacked her and something he had said when he had been possessed, “when the ghost was possessing Kevin, he answered something I’d only been thinking. At least I’m fairly sure I was thinking it, I didn’t exactly get enough air into my lungs to talk.”

“Does it say anything about these ghosts being different from regular ones?” Holtzmann wanted to know, frowning a bit as she glanced at Erin’s bandaged hand, “because knowing that there are ghosts which can do what our new friend does is well and good, but it won’t help with locating and trapping it.”

“I didn’t get that far”, Patty said a bit apologetically, “but luckily I could convince the librarian to let me borrow this, even though it was in the rare section. So you guys better not damage it. No dancing anywhere near it, Holtzy.”

“That’d only be dangerous if I danced with a blowtorch, or two”, Holtzmann pointed out, smiling angelically at the look Patty shot her, “but okay, fine, no dancing. Wouldn’t want you to fall victim to the librarian’s wrath because the book got damaged.”

“Good”, Patty said, then let them know that she would get some more reading done, and hopefully find something useful; and once she had retreated to her library corner, Abby suggested that Erin should get some more rest, with a pointed look at her bruised throat.

“I’ll make you some tea”, Holtzmann declared, practically shooting up from the couch, Erin pouting at the sudden loss of close contact, “why don’t you head upstairs, cupcake, and I’ll join you in a minute when it’s done?”

“Okay”, Erin agreed, even though she would have preferred to stay close to the engineer; her legs still felt a bit wobbly though, and so, she figured that standing around in the kitchen wouldn’t do her much good, thus making her way upstairs instead of trying to protest.

It took her a bit longer than usual to walk all the way to the top of the stairs, her legs even shakier by the time she had made it there; she took a moment to catch her breath, then made her way to her bedroom and simply fell down onto the bed there, letting out a long breath as she looked up at the ceiling.

She hoped that Holtzmann wouldn’t take too long as she laid there, and stared up at the ceiling; this soon bored her though, and so, she moved the pillow so she could comfortably lean against the headboard and grabbed her book, figuring she might as well read a few pages while she’d wait for Holtzmann to arrive.

While Erin was keeping herself from boredom with her book upstairs, Holtzmann was in the kitchen, preparing tea for her, as she had promised; she was rummaging through the kitchen cupboards, looking for the jar of honey she knew they had somewhere, while Abby was leaning against the kitchen table, deep in thought after what had happened.

“Where is that honey”, Holtzmann distracted her from said thoughts, sounding impatient, “the tea is done, but I have to add honey, and I don’t want to leave Erin waiting for too long up there.”

_Up there,_ her mind echoed at her, and at the next thought which rushed through her brain, her blood ran cold.

_Up there and all alone. You talked about how you should stay together and now she’s up there all alone._

“Shit!” Holtzmann let out, earning a confused look from Abby, but before the researcher could ask her what was going on, she had bolted from the room and was running towards the stairs; confused, Abby looked after her, not quite sure if she should follow her, then deciding to so do, just in case something odd was going on.

Unaware of Abby following her, Holtzmann ran up the stairs, boots thumping loudly on the wood, and rushed to Erin’s room, figuring that the physicist would have gone there – certainly, Erin wouldn’t have been forward enough to go to the engineer’s bedroom – not bothering to knock, but pushing the door open, only to stop dead in her tracks, her eyes going wide as her mouth went dry.

Erin laid on her bed, unmoving, glassy eyes staring up at the ceiling; and her throat had been cut, and there was blood _everywhere._

Holtzmann couldn’t even scream, just capable of letting out a small, wheezy sound as she stumbled back; and the moment she had moved back far enough, the door slammed shut as if pushed by an invisible hand, and she froze, not moving a muscle for a few seconds – before she threw herself forward and against the door, pounded the wood with her fist, just knowing she had to get in there again.

“What’s going on?” Abby demanded to know as she came hurrying to the engineer’s side, close to freaking out herself even though she had no idea what Holtzmann had seen in the room – she never had seen the engineer like this, not even when she had built the first prototype for the PKE meter and it had exploded without much warning, thankfully without seriously hurting her.

“Erin”, was all Holtzmann brought out, then shocked Abby by taking a step back and actually kicking the door; it shook in the frame, but didn’t open, the engineer gritting her teeth before she tried again, with more force this time.

Thanks to being a Ghostbuster, she had gotten fairly good at kicking doors open, and after a third kick, it flew open, hard enough to hit the wall; and as she got another look at the room, Holtzmann could only stand and stare, since Erin was sitting up on her bed, looking confused, but unharmed, the cut she had seen at her throat and all the blood gone without a trace.


	14. Chapter 14

Erin only looked more startled when Holtzmann let out a strangled, but vaguely relieved noise and rushed at her, then hugged her tight enough to cut off her flow of air; she wheezed, but returned the hug, and before she had a chance to ask what was going on, Holtzmann had burst into tears, sobbing so violently that her whole body was shaking.

“Holtz”, Erin tried to calm her down, even though she wasn’t sure what had caused this; Abby was standing in the doorway, looking worried, but clearly having no idea either, just shrugging helplessly at the questioning look Erin gave her over Holtzmann’s shoulder.

“Holtz, whatever it is, it’s okay”, she said, hoping she wouldn’t end up making it worse as she rubbed Holtzmann’s trembling back, “it’s okay, really, it is…”

Holtzmann just clung to her in response, and kept sobbing into her shoulder; the force of her sobs lessened a bit though, and finally, she raised her head to look at Erin, the physicist’s heart breaking at her reddened eyes and the pain she could see in them.

“You were dead”, Holtzmann finally brought out, and Erin blinked, not quite sure where this was coming from now, wondering if perhaps, Holtzmann had fallen asleep downstairs and had been plagued with some sort of nightmare again before she remembered that the engineer had been talking about making her some tea, and certainly she wouldn’t have fallen asleep during that task, “I was searching for the honey for your tea and then I realized you’re up here all alone and felt all scared so I ran up here to see if you’re okay and you were on the bed with your throat cut and blood everywhere…”

She had spoken stilted and rushed, and her voice cracked at the last few words; hurriedly, Erin pulled her closer again and rubbed her back, eager to make her feel better and to reassure her that it just had been an illusion, another trick of the ghost they were forced to deal with.

“It was that ghost again”, she said, Abby looking a bit sick after what Holtzmann just had revealed, but now understanding why the engineer was so freaked out, “using another illusion against us, I’m fine, see? No blood anywhere.”

“We have to put an end to this”, Abby decided, shaking her head, feeling close to tears herself at seeing one of her closest friends so upset, “as fast as possible, before this ghost drives us all insane.”

Erin nodded her agreement, still rubbing Holtzmann’s back; to her relief, the engineer was slowly calming down again, still sniffling though, tears still rolling down her cheeks, Erin’s heart aching at how desolate her girlfriend was.

“It’s okay”, she said again, kissing the top of her head tenderly in an attempt to give her some more comfort, “I’m perfectly fine, alright? Everything is fine.”

Holtzmann nodded against her shoulder, but still didn’t look up; and so, Erin just kept holding her close, and rubbed her tried, and to give her some comfort, eager to make her feel better and to reassure her that everything was truly fine.

* * *

“I think I found something”, Patty said in excitement as the three women came downstairs, waving the book she had brought from the library around, “a description of… jeez, Holtz, what happened, are you okay?”

“Mostly”, Holtzmann mumbled, having calmed down to the point that she had stopped crying, but her red and puffy eyes showed that she’d been weeping not too long ago, and the way Erin kept her hand on the younger woman’s back showed Patty as well that something unpleasant had happened, “the ghost pulled another one of its tricks. And it was really convincing this time. You found something?”

“I did”, Patty confirmed, deciding not to question what Holtzmann had seen, holding her book up again instead, “there’s a kind of ghost which works the way our new friend seems to, with mindgames and illusions. Maybe we can figure out how to have the PKE meter detect it with this new information.”

She put the book onto the table and quickly found the page again which had caught her interest; the four women huddled around the book as Patty pointed out the exact paragraph which appeared to be relevant, all four of them tense as they read it.

_Unlike most ghosts from beyond the barrier, this certain kind of ghost is not bound to a certain place or person_ , the book helpfully informed, _it gains sustenance from the fear of humans, so it might move from place to place to get what it needs._

“Sounds like our friend indeed”, Abby commented, making the others nod, “especially the whole feeding on fear thing.”

“Must have gained twenty pounds lately”, Holtzmann mumbled, still sounding quite subdued; Erin gave her a concerned look, moving her hand to rub her back again, glad when she earned a small, but genuine smile from the engineer.

“Unlike most other ghosts”, Abby continued reading, doing so out loud now, “this ghost works to hide its presence. It does not create cold spots, and its essence is closer to humanity than that of most ghosts, so it can feed off the fear more effectively. Some speculate that perhaps, the ghost never has passed the barrier, but remained right in this realm after death, immediately hungry and in need of sustenance.”

“Closer to humanity”, Erin repeated, frowning, “and the barrier thing… I think I have an idea.”

Her frown deepened as said idea continued forming, and she got up abruptly, mumbling about needing a pen and paper, then asking Holtzmann if she had the PKE meter specs anywhere nearby, the engineer nodding and letting her know they were up at the lab.

“I’ll get it”, she added, making Erin nod while she already was on her way to her desk, quickly finding a notepad and a pen there, and a minute later, Holtzmann returned with the notes for the very first PKE meter she had built, Erin muttering to herself as she went through them.

“Yes, yes”, she finally said a bit louder again, the other three women perking up curiously, knowing this tone of voice from her by now, said tone usually meaning that she was close to cracking something, “this might… okay…”

She scribbled on her notepad with impressive speed, Holtzmann forgetting all about her earlier dismay as she watched her work; she already had been impressed by Erin’s mind when she had read the book, and seeing her work like this, the speed and confidence with which she wrote out long and complicated equations made Holtzmann feel all warm and tingly inside.

The equations were long and complicated, but it didn’t take Holtzmann long to figure out where Erin was going with them, the engineer seeing which changes Erin was making to her own math; and soon, she smiled as she realized where Erin was going with this, quite sure all at once that it would work out.

“Okay”, Erin said after just having worked for a few minutes, looking up from her math and at the three curious women, “this might work. I’m not a hundred percent sure it will, but it’s worth a try. If Holtzmann implements these changes, the PKE meter should pick up not on the energy ghosts usually show, but on everything between that and our own, human energies, for lack of a better word.”

“You’re a genius”, Holtzmann declared in response, not surprised when Erin blushed, still not quite used to getting compliments like this one, “an absolute genius. Did you hear that, everybody, my girlfriend is a genius.”

She leaned over the desk and placed a hearty smack on Erin’s lips, making the physicist giggle, the sound prompting a toothy grin from Holtzmann – before she snatched up the notepad and declared she would get to work right away, letting the others know that she probably could get it done within the hour, if she worked fast.

“Work carefully, too!” Erin suggested, earning another toothy grin before Holtzmann practically skipped up the stairs, her renewed enthusiasm and joy making the other three women quite happy, all of them sure that now, they were on the right way.


	15. Chapter 15

True to her word, Holtzmann got done with the updated PKE meter in less than an hour; it looked pretty much the same at first glance when she came back down from her lab with the new version in hand, but a second, closer look showed Erin, Abby and Patty that she had made some small changes to it, a proud smile on her face as she handed the notebook back to Erin.

“All done”, she said, waving the updated gadget around, “this should work out exactly as you said, Erin. So shall we gear up and kick ass?”

“Hell yeah”, Patty said, smiling, glad to see that Holtzmann was back to her usual self – she had been told what had happened by Abby and Erin while Holtzmann had been busy at the lab upstairs, and the fact that the ghost had managed to make Holtzmann see Erin dead with her throat cut while the physicist actually had been asleep and had somehow kept Erin from waking up even as Holtzmann had been hammering on her door showed all four women that it was time to get rid of the ghost for good.

Thankfully, it didn’t try to stop them from putting on their coveralls and gearing up, making Erin ponder if perhaps, it had used up a lot of energy with the illusion for Holtzmann; she figured that this might make trapping the ghost easier though, determined to take care of the threat once and for all as she strapped on her proton pack.

“Alright”, she then said, looking at the PKE meter Holtzmann was holding, “you want to do the honours, Holtz?”

“With pleasure, my dear”, Holtzmann gave back, grinning; she switched the PKE meter on, and this time, it reacted at once, the little arms lifting and spinning, the display lighting up.

“Score!” the engineer crowed, holding the PKE meter up as if for emphasis; the other three cheered at this small, but important success, only feeling more confident that now, they would finally manage to solve the whole mess.

“Is it anywhere near?” Erin wanted to know, leaning closer to peer at the display, “it has to be, that reaction is quite strong, no?”

“Yes”, Holtzmann still had time to say, then the arms started spinning even faster, and she paused, not quite sure if this was a good thing; and a moment later, the smell of something burning reached her nostrils, and her eyes widened behind her yellow glasses.

She reacted fast, the second she realized what was about to happen, using her free hand to push Erin aside and the other to throw the PKE meter away as far as possible; it exploded while it was still up in the air, bits and pieces flying everywhere, Erin letting out a startled yelp as she fought to not lose her footing.

“Is everyone okay?” Holtzmann demanded to know, frantically looking at them all as she tried to figure out if the debris had hurt anyone, glad when she couldn’t see any blood on anyone; her relief didn’t last long though as a second later, all the lights went out, and it was much darker in the firehouse than it should have been, considering the windows and the time of day.

A loud, malicious laugh echoed through the firehouse, making them all flinch; before she fully realized that she had gotten moving, Erin had pulled her proton gun from the pack, prompting the other three to follow her lead, the Ghostbuster belatedly realizing that they didn’t know what to aim for as they couldn’t see the entity.

“Show yourself!” Patty bellowed, having enough of the ghost’s antics, “you coward!”

The laugh came up again, and they all turned to where it sounded from, high up close to the ceiling; and a second later, Patty yelped as an invisible force slammed into her and threw her back, until she hit the wall and slumped down to her knees.

Holtzmann turned to see if she was okay, perhaps help her, but whatever had hit Patty went after her next; the ground beneath her feet vanished, and she heard Erin cry out as she belatedly realized that she wasn’t just hit like Patty had been, but that the ghost actually had picked her up and was rushing her through the firehouse.

And it didn’t stop at whatever was in its path, chairs and the table flying when it slammed Holtzmann into them; when the ghost finally did drop her, she landed in a heap on the floor, not quite sure which part of her body hurt the most after her short flight, feeling something hot and sticky trickle down her face as she tried to catch her breath.

She heard Erin cry out again, and from the corner of her eye, saw her start running towards her; before the physicist could reach her though, she took a hit of her own, yelping in pain as she was thrown off her feet, Abby being the only one left standing now, something the entity changed quickly as it went after her.

“Fools”, the same voice which had been laughing at them roared once they all had been taken down, laughing again afterwards, “you think your little gadgets can impress me? I am what nightmares are made of, you will not best me!”

Another laugh followed this boast, then a sound like a thunderclap echoed through the firehouse – and then, the lights came back on, and the unnatural darkness vanished, daylight and artificial light flooding the rooms, all four women blinking as they struggled back to their feet.

Holtzmann was oddly surprised when she reached towards the warm wetness on her face and it hurt, followed by her fingers coming away coated in blood; and a moment later, the other three women were by her side, the engineer relieved when she saw that she apparently was the only one actually bleeding.

“Are we all okay”, she asked, Abby and Erin helping her to her feet; the other three let out vague noises of agreement, then Erin pointed out that Holtzmann was bleeding, the engineer giving her a wry smile and a shrug in response.

“I haven’t seen it yet, but I know I’ve had worse”, she said, while Erin eyed the cut high up on her cheek, glad when it seemed as if Holtzmann’s assumption was correct, the cut fairly long, but not looking all too deep, “I’m just glad my proton pack didn’t get damaged when it dragged me through the room. And that you guys are all okay.”

“Stupid damn ghost”, Abby grumbled, glaring around even though it was fair to assume that for now, the entity was leaving them alone, “throwing us around like that. And it ruined the PKE meter, too.”

“I can rebuild that”, Holtzmann shrugged, “maybe make it so that it can display that weird kind of ghost and our regular ones, with a switch or something.”

“Before you make anything, we’ll take care of that cut”, Erin told her, giving her a strict look before she could think of protesting, “clean it properly, at least, I don’t think we can put a band-aid on that…”

“You guys”, Patty threw in before Holtzmann could voice her thoughts about having the cut cleaned, “rebuilding the PKE meter is a good idea and we need it for our work but… I’m not even sure anymore we need it for this certain thing.”

“Huh?” Erin let out, not all too smart, giving the historian a questioning look; Patty shrugged, then lowered her voice even though it was just the four of them in the room, making them all acutely aware of the fact that they might not be alone after all, and prompting them to glance around nervously even though they all already knew that the entity couldn’t be seen.

“I don’t think this is a ghost we’re dealing with”, Patty said, earning surprised and startled looks, “not after all it can do, and after how it just spoke to us. I think it’s something else, and we really should go back to that family and demand some answers.”


	16. Chapter 16

Even though Erin knew that it was only a matter of time before the ghost, or whatever it truly was, would strike again, she insisted on at least cleaning up Holtzmann’s cut before they would go anywhere; the last thing they needed after all was for the cut to get infected, on top of all their other troubles, and so, Holtzmann and she retreated to the bathroom.

“This might hurt a bit”, Erin warned as she poured antiseptic onto a clean cloth, earning a shrug from the engineer; if it did hurt, Holtzmann hid it remarkably well, shrugging again at the way Erin raised an eyebrow at her at the lack of reaction.

“Told you, I’ve had worse”, she then said, while Erin put the cloth aside and grabbed another one, wetting it to wash off the blood which had dried on Holtzmann’s face, “engineering can be dangerous work.”

“Apparently”, Erin drily gave back, earning a toothy grin from the engineer; then, Holtzmann winked at her, and despite her already aching bruises and the drama of the last few days, she managed to put a flirtatious tone in her voice, the blush which coloured Erin’s cheeks at her words showing that she had succeeded.

“Maybe once we took care of this, I’ll show you all my scars”, she said, Erin suddenly focused very hard on cleaning the blood off, “I got quite a few, you know.”

“Uh-huh”, Erin squeaked, then cleared her throat in an attempt to get some self-control back; her mind was occupied by an image of naked Holtzmann though, and she could tell that her blush wasn’t fading, Holtzmann’s smirk not helping much.

“Anyway”, she said, after clearing her throat one more time for good measure, “I think we’re done with that cut. Here, let me…”

She leaned in and kissed the engineer on the cheek, below the cut, knowing better than to put her lips directly on it, but it still got the message across, and Holtzmann’s smirk had been replaced by a bashful smile when the physicist pulled back.

“Awww”, the engineer let out, eyes shining, the adorable sight making Erin smile again as well, “you kissed it better!”

“Maybe I can do that for all your scars later”, Erin said, suddenly daring, and it paid off as now, it was Holtzmann’s turn to blush visibly, “you know. Once we took care of this.”

“I’d like that”, Holtzmann told her, recovering much faster than Erin had; her cheeks were still reddened though, and Erin felt a bit smug at having managed to cause this reaction, glad that she wasn’t the only one blushing for once.

A knock from the door startled them both, and prompted them both to realize how long they already had been in that bathroom; and apparently, the other two Ghostbusters had taken notice of this as well, since Patty’s voice came up, demanding to know if everything was okay in there.

“If the not-ghost is messing with your heads again, let us know”, she added while Erin and Holtzmann exchanged guilty looks, “but if you guys are making out in there, get done with it and come back out!”

“We’re coming”, Erin gave back, then clapped her hand over her mouth as she realized how this could be interpreted; clearly, Holtzmann and Patty had noticed though, since Holtzmann snickered while Patty groaned from the other side of the door, then told them to get moving.

“They’ll tease us so much”, Erin whispered to Holtzmann as she threw the bloodied cloth into the trash, “and I can’t even blame them.”

“Same”, Holtzmann agreed, but instead of doing as Patty has suggested and walking out immediately, she took a few moments to pull Erin close and kiss her gently, the physicist kissing her back at once, forgetting all about possible teasing from their friends.

“Thank you for taking care of me”, the engineer softly said after the kiss, Erin smiling as she told her it was nothing; then, they kissed once more before they finally left the bathroom together, ready to head out with Abby and Patty and confront the family Patty suspected was responsible for their plight.

* * *

Holtzmann was driving again, and Erin had called dibs on the passenger seat; and as the engineer drove, she reached out every now and then to touch her hand or pat her leg, the short, but tender touches met with smiles from Erin and good-natured teasing from Abby and Patty.

“I wonder if Benny-Boy is gonna be home”, Holtzmann pondered out loud as she had to stop at a red light, glancing at her watch while Erin needed a moment to recall that the man’s name had been Benedict, smiling a bit at the nickname as she could imagine how he might have reacted to it, “what with him being the big provider for his adoring family. Like in the olden days.”

She made gagging noises, and the other three laughed; then, Erin told her that perhaps, she should leave the talking to Patty, and Holtzmann grinned at her as the traffic light switched to green again.

“Oh, I will”, she said, moving her attention back onto the road, “I’m afraid he’ll try to spray me with holy water if I open my mouth and say the wrong thing. If he’s even at home.”

“Might be better if he isn’t”, Abby commented, leaning forward a bit, “if somehow, their ghost or whatever it is followed us home, he might be glad to be rid of it, and I got the feeling he kept his wife from talking when we were there the first time. And his kid.”

“The kid was acting weird”, Erin remembered, frowning a bit as she thought back to the kid’s behaviour, “what was his name? Michael? He was so unlike the other kids we’ve met.”

“Matthew”, Patty corrected, Erin feeling a bit bad, but then, she never had all too good with names, “and yeah, he did act weird. Let’s hope Benny-Boy truly isn’t home, might be helpful indeed.”

“We’ll find out in a minute”, Holtzmann said as she pulled up to the curb in front of the family’s house; since it already had been decided that Patty would do the talking, seeing that she was the one who connected the easiest with people, they all got out of the car the moment Holtzmann had killed the engine, Erin fighting the urge to grasp Holtzmann’s hand as the walked to the front door side by side, telling herself that this might not make Benedict make react very well to them.

Taking the lead, Patty rang the doorbell, and then, they waited, all four of them listening closely for any noise which would show that someone was actually home, the women realizing with a bit of dismay that they had no back-up plan in case no one was there or the family would refuse to talk to them.

Patty waited for a bit, then rang the bell again; and this time, after a few more seconds had ticked by, footsteps came up behind the door, Sheila looking concerned, then surprised when she opened the door and saw the Ghostbuster standing outside.

“Hello”, she said, and Patty could immediately tell she was not happy to see them, just from how she avoided to look any of them in the eye, “what can I do for you?”

“We need to have a talk”, Patty told her, trying hard to not sound accusing, but it was difficult, after all the entity had put them through, “can we come in?”

“My husband isn’t home”, Sheila stalled, appearing even more nervous now, “you’ll have to come back later when he’s here.”

“We don’t want to talk to your husband, Ma’am”, Erin threw in, making Sheila look at her, and feeling a bit bad for the woman as she knew exactly how it felt to be so nervous and worried, “we want to speak to you. And possibly to your son.”

“I’d really prefer if you spoke to my husband”, Sheila gave back, “and there is no need to speak to our son, it would only upset him.”

“I wanna talk to them, mom”, Matthew unexpectedly said from somewhere next to her, behind the door where they couldn’t see him, and when he continued, he confirmed all of the suspicions Patty had had and had brought up with the others.

“I want to talk to them”, he repeated when his mother looked at him, clearly startled, “and tell them what I did.”


	17. Chapter 17

“What did you do, Sweetie”, Patty quickly asked, before Sheila could get the idea to close the door; for a moment, it looked as if the woman wanted to do that, anyway, and cut her son off, then he slipped past her and ended up in front of her, her brow furrowing briefly, but she didn’t try to pull him back or to stop him from talking some other way.

“I didn’t mean for anything bad to happen”, Matthew said, finding it hard to look at any of them and even scuffing his foot against the welcome mat, looking very much like an innocent child who just had made a mistake, and not like a boy who was almost a teenager, “I just wanted things… to change.”

“Perhaps you should come in after all”, Sheila threw in before he could give them more details, looking around nervously as if she expected nosy neighbours to pop out from behind the bushes, “so we can… talk. But Matthew, you know your father wouldn’t want this.”

“They have a right to know”, Matthew gave back, glancing at Holtzmann’s face before he looked at his mother again, a rather impressive bruise by now having formed around the cut, making it look even more dramatic, “they got hurt, you can see that. And they had nothing to do with what I did.”

“There have been some unpleasant events”, Erin confirmed at the questioning look Sheila gave the group; she studied the four women for a few moments longer, then sighed and stepped aside without another word, allowing them all to enter.

“Follow me please”, she then said, leading the way to the living room; she offered them a seat there, and once they all had chosen one, Matthew and she sat down as well, the woman taking note of how close Erin was sitting to Holtzmann, the physicist finding herself unable to care though, not bothered anymore by what these people were thinking of her.

“So”, Patty said, giving Matthew a hopefully calming smile, “tell us what happened, Matthew. We just want to help.”

“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt”, Matthew said, with a guilty look at Holtzmann’s face, “I swear, I just… I wanted things to change. Here. So I… I tried to find a way.”

Patty had a vague idea where this was leading, but didn’t interrupt the kid; he took in a few slow, controlled breaths, then continued, looking at his feet now, possibly so he wouldn’t have to see his mother’s stern face, Erin sourly thought to herself.

“I prayed, at first”, Matthew continued, “because father says praying helps. But it didn’t, so I looked at… other books. Books I found in the library and at this little store in town. And at the store I found which told me how to… how to… call someone I thought could help.”

“You summoned something”, Patty said, holding back the urge to grimace, not wanting to make him feel worse, “didn’t you. A demon?”

“Yes”, Matthew confirmed, barely audible, Sheila’s expression darkening further, “but I didn’t want him to hurt anyone, I swear. I thought he would help, would change things, would make Father stop—”

“Matthew”, Sheila interrupted him sharply, and from how he flinched, they all could tell he knew this tone of voice well, Erin’s heart flying out to him, “this is not relevant for what happened.”

“Let him finish”, Holtzmann said, in such an uncharacteristically cold voice that it made Erin look at her in surprise, “I’m pretty sure it is relevant. Tell us, Matthew. Make him stop doing what?”

“Hit me”, Matthew mumbled, barely audible again, “but it… he… didn’t. He just… made trouble, until it got so bad that Father said we had to get rid of him. But we couldn’t, I couldn’t make him leave, he said he wouldn’t unless we give him a better place to go and that’s when Father decided to call you, he said that four women who have time for such foolishness instead of doing what God intended them to surely would know what to do about the demon.”

“Of course”, Holtzmann said, still in that awfully cold voice, keeping her gaze fixed on Sheila though, and signalling to Matthew that her tranquil fury wasn’t aimed at him, “I bet your husband has really detailed ideas about what women are and aren’t supposed to do. Isn’t that right, Sheila.”

“I will not speak about my husband behind his back”, Sheila coldly replied, not quite managing to match Holtzmann’s impressive tone though, Erin still staring at her as she never had heard her speak like that, not once in all the time they had known each other, “and this is of no importance. We told you what you wanted to know. Now leave.”

“Do you have the book still?” Patty wanted to know, ignoring the demand to leave, “and if you do, can we have it?”

“Yes, I’ll get it”, Matthew said, coming to his feet; Sheila didn’t ask them to leave again, but kept glaring daggers at them, at Holtzmann specifically, the engineer holding her gaze, appearing unimpressed by her ire.

Matthew hurried off to his room, while Sheila and Holtzmann kept looking daggers at each other; finally, Sheila looked away first though, Erin feeling oddly triumphant for her girlfriend, but then, she knew first-hand how intense Holtzmann’s gaze could be, and wasn’t truly surprised that the other woman had given in first.

“Once he gave you the book, I want you to leave”, Sheila said, looking at Erin now, apparently having decided that it was safer to look at her then at Holtzmann, “or I’ll call the police.”

“You should”, Holtzmann said, still in that ice cold tone, Sheila briefly glancing at her before she looked away again, “but not for us. For your son. Or do you agree with the whole spare the rod, spoil the child approach?”

Patty gave Holtzmann a slightly surprised look at this, Erin noticed, but didn’t comment on it; Sheila didn’t respond, and that was answer enough for the engineer, Erin finding herself surprised yet again when she abruptly got up from her seat and left the room without another word, the front door slamming audibly a few moments later, making them all jump.

They sat in tense silence until Matthew came back with the book, Patty thanking him with a kind smile; she asked him what exactly he had used from it, and once he had pointed the page out to her, the other three Ghostbusters took their leave, as well, Erin just eager to make sure Holtzmann was okay, now that they had what they needed. 

Holtzmann was leaning against Ecto-1, her arms crossed over her chest, her gaze focused on her feet; she looked up when she heard the others approach, and Erin’s heart clenched up at the raw pain she could see in her eyes, just for a second, just long enough to let her notice before Holtzmann quickly regained enough self-control to hide it.

“We got everything we need?” she asked, making Patty nod as she held up the book; Holtzmann gave a smile which would have convinced anyone who didn’t know her, but they all did, and none of them believed it was genuine for a second, Erin giving her a concerned look, but knowing better than to bring this up right now.

So, she just suggested that they should go back to the firehouse, making Holtzmann nod at once; she got behind the steering wheel again, Erin once again riding shotgun, and keeping a calming hand on the engineer’s upper thigh as she drove, silently reassuring her that it would be alright and that she was there for her, should she ever feel the need to talk.


	18. Chapter 18

During the ride to the firehouse, Holtzmann was quiet, and when they arrived there, she immediately went up to the lab; all Erin wanted was to follow her, but she told herself not to, not right away, that Holtzmann might need some time to cool down and that she’d only make it worse if she went after her too fast.

So, she made herself wait, staying with Abby and Patty instead, the historian taking a closer look at the book; to her dismay, there only were details on how to summon the demon Matthew had tried to call for help, and no information on how to get rid of it, but now, they at least knew what they were dealing with, and figured that they could work from that.

“Maybe we should call a priest”, Erin said, only half joking, as her awkward laughter showed; Abby sighed, then shrugged, giving her an unhappy look while Patty was studying the book, sounding regretful when she responded.

“You know”, she let her best friend know, “I was thinking about that on the drive back, and seriously considering it. But… Most priests these days, I doubt they still actually believe demons exist, so it might be difficult to get one on board.”

“True”, Erin had to realize, sighing to herself, “okay, no priest them. Too bad we haven’t been called to any haunted churches yet, then we could have called in a favour. I think I should check on Holtzmann…”

Abby nodded at once, casting a worried glance at the ceiling, the silence from upstairs quite uncharacteristic – usually, the first thing Holtzmann did when she went up there was to put on some music, always claiming that she couldn’t work without a proper beat in the background.

As it turned out, Holtzmann wasn’t actually working when Erin came upstairs, sitting at one of her workbenches, but just looking at the trap which laid on it, waiting for maintenance; she briefly glanced at Erin when the physicist came up the stairs, and once again Erin could see the pain in her eyes.

This time, Holtzmann didn’t bother to try hiding it, but just glanced away again, and Erin’s heart broke all over.

Not quite sure what to say – not sure if there was anything she _could_ say – Erin walked over to the engineer, stopped as close to her as it was possible without actually sitting in her lap and wrapped both arms around her, relieved when Holtzmann hugged her back at once, the engineer letting out a shaky breath as she rested her head on Erin’s shoulder.

“I’m pretty good at ignoring it”, she mumbled after a while, Erin rubbing her back soothingly as she could feel her tense up, “for most of the time. But sometimes… sometimes I see something, or hear something, which brings it back.”

Erin just nodded, having had her own share of childhood traumata which could be brought back by apparently random triggers; she didn’t ask Holtzmann to elaborate, and the engineer was thankful for this – part of her wanted to tell her, wanted to let all the bad memories spill out like pus from an infected wound, so perhaps, there could be healing, but another part was almost panicking at the idea, at how Erin might react to the revelations.

“You don’t have to tell me anything”, Erin quietly reassured her, rubbing her back as she only had felt her get tenser, “it’s okay. I’m here for you in case you want to talk, but if you don’t want to, it’s okay, too, alright?”

“I know”, Holtzmann mumbled, her face still hidden against Erin’s shoulder, muffling her voice a bit, “and I trust you, I do. I just… I told Dr Gorin, you know. After… an unpleasant moment at the lab, at MIT. That was fifteen years ago and I haven’t told anyone since, not even Abby, no one…”

“It’s okay”, Erin told her again, hoping she was saying the right things and not making everything worse, “and you don’t have to, if it hurts too much or if it makes you uncomfortable. But if you ever feel like you… maybe not want to, but have to, I’m here for you, okay? You don’t have to handle this alone anymore, whatever it is, I want you to know that.”

Holtzmann just nodded against her shoulder, but didn’t say anything else; and so, Erin just held her, and rubbed her back, and reassured her she was there for her, no matter what, the engineer holding on to her as she struggled to keep her self-control, not quite ready yet to reveal much more than she already had.

* * *

“Alright guys”, Patty said quite a while later, Holtzmann back downstairs with the others and back to her usual self, but despite how relaxed and confident she seemed again, Erin found herself wondering how much of it was real, and how much of it was a front the engineer to put up to not let anyone see the anguish she had let Erin see.

So, she made sure to remain close to Holtzmann, keeping one hand on her back or her arm whenever it was possible without being uncomfortable for either of them; Holtzmann was clearly grateful for the silent support, glancing at her every now and then and smiling at her, and Erin could tell they were honest, genuine smiles.

“We now know what we’re dealing with”, Patty let them know, the other three exchanging relieved glances, curious what she had found out, “I did some research, and I think I know how we can get rid of this demon. It will be dangerous though, I can tell you that already, and it’s gonna try to stop us from banishing it, with its usual tricks probably. Using our fears against us.”

“Well, now we know it can do that, so we’ll know it’s not real”, Abby said, making Erin and Holtzmann nod, “we’ll just have to keep that in mind when it tries something again. Can it attack us physically to stop us?”

“Yes”, Patty said at once, to the dismay of the three women, “I read up on protection, but I’m not sure how well the things I found will work, the sources were a bit… questionable. We’ll need to be very careful, and look out for each other the best we can, and not let it separate us. Remove everything from the vicinity which could be used to hurt us.”

They set out to do just that, moving furniture and making sure that nothing laid around which could be thrown again; once they had made enough room, Patty told them that she would get some salt from the kitchen for a protective circle.

“We all have to remain inside this circle”, she instructed them, the others sitting down on the pillows which had been readied on the floor so she could draw the circle around them, “no matter what, alright? It will try to scare us into running out of the circle, but we can’t do that, no matter what, keep that in mind.”

They all nodded, and Patty drew the circle around them with the salt; then, she sat down on the fourth pillow, and they all joined hands, then looked at Patty, waiting for her to start, all of them nervous as they had no idea what to expect.


	19. Chapter 19

Patty started the ritual with a Latin chant, Erin able to understood a few of the words, but not all of them; she glanced at Holtzmann as she felt how sweaty the engineer’s palm was, and squeezed her hand reassuringly, Holtzmann briefly glancing at her with a tiny smile before she looked at Patty again, the historian still chanting.

To Erin, it sounded as if she was asking the demon to go for a walk, but she was aware of the troubles she sometimes had with foreign languages, and didn’t trust herself too much; she glanced around nervously when Patty started the chant for the third time, and the lights flickered, as if in response to her voice and words.

Having noticed as well, Patty raised her voice slightly, showing the demon that the lightshow didn’t impress her; the flickering of the lights increased, the four women holding hands tighter at this clear sign, and a few seconds later, all the lightbulbs exploded, making them all yelp as splinters rained down on them.

They didn’t let go of each other though, not even when the room was plunged into unnatural darkness again; Holtzmann felt Erin’s hand hold on tighter to hers, knowing that the physicist was no fan of total darkness, but if Erin felt the need to run and find a source of light, she bravely ignored it, remaining where she was, in the protection of the circle.

“Jillian!” a loud, harsh voice suddenly thundered through the room, making them all jump, Holtzmann suddenly holding on so tight to Erin that it hurt, “what are you doing, fooling around with these women?! You need the belt again? Has it been too long, did you forget?”

“It’s not real”, Erin hurriedly said when she more sensed than saw Holtzmann move next to her, in the total darkness which was enveloping them, “Holtzmann, it’s not real!”

As if to mock her, the sound of a belt snapping echoed through the room next, and the whimper Erin could hear from Holtzmann broke her heart; and a moment later, Holtzmann’s hand was gone from hers, her eyes widening in the dark as she realized what was about to happen.

“Holtzmann, no!” she cried out, shooting to her feet, blindly groping into the darkness, her legs almost buckling with relief when her fingers caught on to fabric and she realized she somehow had managed to take hold of Holtzmann, despite the darkness.

“Holtz, it’s not real, it’s not real”, she repeated as she wrapped both arms around her, feeling her tremble in her embrace, another small whimper coming from the engineer, “it’s not real. It’s just trying to frighten you, to make you run out of the circle, but you have to stay here, with us, with me. Okay?”

Holtzmann just kept clinging to her in response, but at least, she didn’t try to run anymore; Patty kept up the chanting, even though there was a hint of worry in her voice now, the emotion only growing when a faint blue glow formed a few feet from the circle, Erin’s breath getting caught in her throat when an all too familiar ghost began to form.

Despite the sudden fear she felt at the sight of her childhood ghost, Erin made herself sit down again, pulling Holtzmann along with her, making sure to keep holding on to her hand; Holtzmann was still holding on to her fairly tightly, but apparently, Erin had gotten through to her, as she didn’t try to run anymore.

“I know you’re not real”, Erin bravely called out to her childhood ghost, the apparition laughing menacingly in response, “you’re gone, you’ve been gone for decades! Go away!”

The ghost laughed again, but apparently, the demon decided it wasn’t doing the trick, since the ghost vanished a moment later; instead, a disembodied voice came up next, addressing Abby this time, the researcher setting her jaw as she tried hard to ignore the nasty words.

“You know they will leave you”, the demon taunted her, Patty continuously chanting, raising her voice to drown it out, “they are just playing along with your delusions, none of this is real.”

“Your words aren’t real”, Abby gave back, and judging from the growl the demon let out, it wasn’t happy about how the women refused to listen to it and to react by running from the circle; and apparently, it decided that mindgames weren’t leading anywhere, roaring loudly instead, flashes of light coming up all around them as it tried to attack them and slammed into the protection the circle had created.

“Come out and face me you cowards!” it shouted when it realized that there was no way it could reach the women, “I will not be defeated like this!”

“Leave”, Patty roared in response, surprisingly loud, making the other three jump, another flash of light coming up directly behind her as the demon tried to attack her, “you are not welcome here any longer! You are not needed any longer! Your invitation is revoked! You are banished!”

She went back to the Latin chanting, and it seemed to have some sort of effect, as the demon roared again, more flashes coming up, in quick succession… before it let out a howl which sounded pained and anguished, a strong gust of wind rushing through the room, the howl fading as it died down again, all four women holding their breath as they wondered if this meant the demon was gone.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, and they sat in the darkness, waiting to see if it’d come back and try to attack them again… and then the lights went back on, and the whole atmosphere somehow changed, becoming lighter and more peaceful, all four women noticing, exchanging glances as they didn’t quite dared to feel relief yet.

“…is it gone?” Erin finally was the one to ask, still holding on tight to Holtzmann’s hand; Abby took in a deep breath in response, then told them there was only one way to find out, letting go of Patty and Erin’s hands and coming to her feet.

The others held their breath as she stepped out of the circle, the researcher squeezing her eyes shut as she waited for an attack; they let almost a whole minute tick by, then Abby dared to open her eyes again, glancing around, a wide smile forming on her face moments later.

“It’s gone!” she cried, raising her arms in triumph, “Patty, you did it! It’s gone!”

“Hell yeah”, Patty said, proud of herself; Erin and Holtzmann smiled happily as well as they came to their feet, all four of them hugging afterwards, their relief almost overwhelming them after everything the demon had put them through.

“Should have tried a different tune with me”, Abby said, smiling proudly, “I didn’t believe that for a second.”

“Good”, Erin solemnly told her, making her smile widen, “because we love you, and we will never, ever leave you.”

“I know”, Abby smiled, then pulled them closer again; and while they all were happy and celebrating, Erin could tell that Holtzmann’s mood was slightly dampened by what the demon had used against her, silently vowing to herself that she would try her best to make her feel better once they’d be alone and would have some privacy.


	20. Chapter 20

Feeling exhausted after the ritual, Patty retreated to her bedroom fairly quickly, Abby doing the same, claiming that she needed to catch up on some sleep; Erin figured that they both wanted to give Holtzmann and her the chance to talk, after what the demon had used against the engineer, and she was grateful for that, asking Holtzmann if she wanted to come to her room with her.

The engineer nodded at once, clearly not willing to be alone after all the excitement; Erin gave her another smile, then led the way, Holtzmann following her, unusually quiet still when they arrived there and Erin offered her a seat on her bed, not even making some sort of innuendo-laden comment about said seat.

“I guess I should tell you now, huh”, she said instead, Erin sitting down next to her and taking her hand, “after what Douchey McDemon said down there.”

“You don’t have to”, Erin gave back, squeezing her hand gently, glad when Holtzmann looked at her in response, knowing it was hard for the engineer to do so when her discomfort had reached a certain level, “I’m here if you want to, but if you don’t want to, or can’t, it’s okay, too.”

“Well”, Holtzmann mumbled after a few seconds had ticked by in silence, “the first time we’ll… get intimate, you’d notice anyway. So I might as well tell you now, there’s not much left to tell anymore anyway after what the demon said.”

She fell silent again and fidgeted a bit, and Erin let go of her hand to put one arm around her and pull her close; Holtzmann leaned against her, staring at the wall opposite of them, not quite able to look at Erin anymore, with what she was about to reveal.

“That voice”, she said after sorting her thoughts for a few more moments, “that… that was my father. I guess you know what his favourite method to punish all sorts of transgressions was after what the demon said.”

“Jesus, Holtzmann”, Erin gave back, her heart breaking for her girlfriend; her own parents hadn’t been all too supportive of her, especially not when the ghost had started haunting her, but at least they never had abused her like this, and she couldn’t imagine how it had been to grow up in such a violent household.

“He had a bad temper, so he was quick to find something which had to be punished”, the engineer continued, “usually with his hands, but when he was really mad or drunk or both, he’d use his belt. Push up my shirt, will you?”

This request came quite unexpected, and Erin blinked for a moment before she did so, Holtzmann having moved so that she sat with her back to the physicist; and a few seconds later, Erin gasped as she saw the scars, white and faded with age, but still all too visible, telling a painful story.

“I’m so sorry”, Erin brought out, the scars blurring as sudden tears filled her eyes, her heart aching for the engineer and the hard childhood she had had, “no one should have to go through this…”

Without thinking, she reached out and ran her fingertips over one of the scars, taking note of how Holtzmann shuddered at the gentle touch; she pulled back and let the shirt fall back down, prompting Holtzmann to turn on the bed so that she was facing her again.

“My mom tried to stop him, sometimes”, the engineer told her, Erin reaching out to grasp her hand in an attempt to give her some comfort, “but then he’d go after her, so… I tried to run away from home a few times, but he’d had the police take me back, I only got away for good when I got accepted at MIT.”

Erin squeezed her hand, having no idea what to say, not wanting to make it worse by saying the wrong thing; and so, she hugged Holtzmann instead of saying anything, the engineer hugging her back at once, burying her face in her shoulder again.

“You don’t have to deal with this alone anymore”, Erin said, figuring that this was a safe and good thing to say, and meaning every word, “I’m here to help you, alright? I want you to know that.”

“I know”, Holtzmann told her, making Erin smile a bit, “and thank you for that, it means a lot.”

Erin had a moment to give her another smile, then Holtzmann leaned in and kissed her; there was a sort of needy desperation in the kiss, as if the engineer tried to tell her something she couldn’t put into words, and Erin kissed her back at once, eager to show her that she understood anyway and that she was there for her, no matter what.

“We have to do something”, Holtzmann mumbled after the kiss, suddenly finding it hard to look at Erin again, showing that some of her discomfort was coming back, “about the kid, I mean. Matthew. We can’t just leave him there and do nothing…”

“We can’t”, Erin agreed at once, the look of relief Holtzmann gave her making her heart clench up again as she wondered what sort of reaction the engineer had been expecting or perhaps afraid of, “and I already have an idea. Now that we know it was a demon, we do have file a report, you know, and Jennifer Lynch reads them all, so…”

Holtzmann gave her a grateful smile, barely audible when she mumbled “thank you”; Erin told her not to mention it, then kissed her again, eager to take some of her pain away.

Erin knew that simply being with her wouldn’t magically take all the pain away, just like it wouldn’t be a magic cure for her own anxieties and troubles; she also knew though that they would help each other, and would be there for each other, and that having each other would make everything easier.

“We’ll help him”, she said out loud, making Holtzmann nod, “we’ll make sure Jennifer Lynch pulls all the right strings, I promise.”

“I’m happy to be with you”, Holtzmann blurted out in response, then amazed Erin by blushing a bit; smiling, Erin reassured her she was happy too and pulled her in for another kiss, and with the demon gone and the two having found each other, she all at once just knew that everything would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is it :D This was fun to write - and this is what happens when I watch a bad horror movie about demons, think "I can do better" and get to work. I hope you enjoyed :D


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